Table of Contents Part I Introduction 4 Part II Find Answers in the Manual 5 Part III Getting Started 8 1 Getting Started

Contents I

Table of Contents Part I Introduction 4 Part II Find answers in the manual 5 Part III Getting started 8 1 Getting Started...... - Your first 10 clicks 9 2 Getting Started...... - Adding your first movie 11 3 Getting Started...... - Quick guide 13 4 Getting Started...... - Useful and powerful tips 15 Part IV Buying Movie Collector 18 Part V Support 21 Part VI Common Tasks 22 1 Adding Movies...... Automatically 23 2 Editing movies...... 25 3 Browsing...... your collection 28 4 Finding a...... movie in your collection 31 5 Printing ...... 33 Part VII Advanced Tasks 34 1 Adding multi-disc...... DVDs 37 2 Adding movies...... using barcodes 43 3 Using the...... Media Center viewer 44 4 Editing multiple...... movies 47 5 Automatically...... updating movies 50 6 Submitting...... movies to the Collectorz.com Movie Database 51 7 Adding images...... manually 53 8 Searching...... with a filter 54 9 Searching...... with wildcards 56 10 Managing...... lookup lists 58 11 Loaning movies...... 60 12 Viewing collection...... statistics 62 13 Customizing...... Movie Collector 63 14 Updating...... file links 66 15 Repairing...... thumbnails 68 16 Importing...... movies 69

I II Collectorz.com Movie Collector Help Manual

17 Exporting...... data to text format 71 18 Exporting...... data to HTML 73 19 Exporting...... to PDA, iPod and XML 76 20 Updating...... Movie Collector 79 21 Transfering...... data to a new computer 81 22 Transfering...... data to a Mac 82 23 Making backups...... of your data 83 Part VIII Reference 86 1 Menus ...... 87 File menu ...... 88 Edit menu ...... 89 Search menu ...... 90 View menu ...... 91 Loans menu ...... 92 Tools menu ...... 93 Buy menu ...... 94 Help menu ...... 95 2 Screens ...... 96 Main screen ...... 98 Add Movies Automatically...... screen 100 Edit Movie screen...... 102 Print screen ...... 106 Filter screen ...... 109 Column field selection...... screen 113 Sort field selection...... screen 115 Folder field selection...... screen 117 Manage Loans screen...... 119 Box Set screen ...... 121 Field Defaults screen...... 123 Statistics screen ...... 125 Text export screen...... 127 HTML export screen...... 129 Options screen ...... 134 Search Settings screen...... 143 3 DVD / CD...... carousels 144 CenturionCD carousels...... 145 Ziotek and Dacal carousels...... 148 4 Multi-user...... support and read-only mode 150 Notifications ...... 151 Forcing read-only...... mode 152 The lock file ...... 153 5 Miscellaneous...... 154 Data field meanings...... 155 Lookup lists ...... 158 Sorting properly ...... 161 Folder view for grouping...... 164 Barcode scanning...... reference 166 Storing disks ...... 168

Shortcut keys ...... 169 Digital movie files...... 170 XSL templates ...... 171 6 License ...... agreement 172 Index 0

III 4 Collectorz.com Movie Collector Help Manual

1 Introduction

Movie Collector catalogs your personal movie collection with a minimum of typing. After adding your movies to the database you can browse your movie collection on screen (as a list or as a gallery of cover images), search the database for movie information, print sorted lists, track your loans, export to an iPod, view them on your Media Center PC and much more.

You can add movies to the database by typing the movie titles or by scanning your barcodes with the Collectorz.com laser barcode scanner. All movie data (year, director, cast, crew, cover image, etc...) will be automatically downloaded from our own Collectorz.com Movie Database.

Movie Collector is part of the Collectorz.comâ series of collection managers. This series includes software for cataloging your CDs, DVDs, books, comics, video games, audio files (MP3, WMA, OGG etc..) and digital photos.

Get started with Movie Collector now!

· Find answers in the manual is an important start. It will help you finding answers in the manual. · Getting Started topics will get up and running as quickly as possible with Movie Collector.

2 Find answers in the manual

This manual will cover all areas of Movie Collector. If you open the manual using the help buttons available on most Movie Collector screens, the manual will automatically open with help on that screen. If you need to find other topics in the manual, it is recommended to look through the topics here. You will learn how to quickly find information in the manual, searching for keywords.

Tip: Note that while letting your mouse hover over a button in Movie Collector, a short text will come up to explain what the button does. Note: Some images in this manual are shown in a miniature size to save space on your monitor for text. Clicking such an image will toggle the image between full size and back to miniature.

How to use this Movie Collector manual. This manual can help you in many ways on everyday tasks as well as more complex things you are wondering about. It is important though to know how to use the manual, and in what ways you can get the topic and information you are looking for.

1. The Getting Started Guide The contents tab will show a tree like overview of the manual's topics.

· First it will have a Getting Started section, which in just a few steps will help you to use Movie Collector and after that reveal some powerful features.The Getting started section counts 4 topics as you can see in the left tree of this manual.

You can use the back / forward buttons as you would do when browsing the internet.

Some topics are only intended for the Pro version of Movie Collector only. Such sections are shown by the icon in the (left) tree.

2. Accessing the Manual · Secondly, the manual can be accessed from almost anywhere in the program, any screen OR you may have questions about by clicking the Help button or the manual (book)button.

· You will find this Help button on most screens, if not you can always hit the (F1) key on your keyboard to open the manual. It will open at the appropriate help topic (so about the screen you are looking at).

3. Searching in the Manual If you open the manual but are not sure what section you can find the information you are looking for, you can use the Index and Search tabs on the left. These two tabs are very efficient tools in finding the section that you are looking for.

· Type a keyword and double click the result · The search tab will search through the highlighted in blue to view the related topic. complete manual for any word you type, and rank the resulting pages to their likely importance. Click a topic and hit the Display button to view the topic.

What can be found where in the manual. The manual counts four main sections, each one has its own purpose. At the bottom of most subsections, you will find links of other sections that are closely related to that section or task. 1. Introduction to Movie Collector Get to know Movie Collector, and learn where to find answers in the manual. · How to use the manual (this section) · Getting Started - your first 10 clicks · Getting Started - Adding your first movie · Getting Started - Quick guide: flyer like overview of the basics of Movie Collector. · Getting Started - useful and powerful tips · Buying Movie Collector · Support

2. Common tasks Add movies, edit movie details and learn how to find your movies back; task based. All tasks end with linking to related topics. · Adding movies · Editing movies · Browsing your movies (not task based) · Finding a movie · Printing

3. Advanced tasks A wide range of task based help on somewhat more advanced (but recommended) tasks. All tasks end with linking to related topics. · Adding movies consisting of more than one disc, such as Box sets, TV series and special editions. · Using the cool Media Center viewer · Editing multiple movies in one go (batch editing) · Submit new movies (or new movie information) to our online movie database · Filtering movies to find specific movies (e.g. all movies released after 2000) · Importing and exporting movies (to your iPod, html for your website, or from e.g. the program My Movies) · Missing images ? Re-link the movie covers and repair thumbnails. · Help on how to back up data, moving to a new Windows computer or a Mac computer.

4. Reference Detailed explanations of all the menus, screens, data fields used in Movie Collector; not task based. · All Menus as they are available in the menu bar of Movie Collector · Screens that you can come across when using Movie Collector. At the start of each screen is a reference to the task is most relates to. · Using a database by sharing it amongst multiple computers over a network · Using Movie Collector with the CenturionCD and Ziotek carousels to store your discs · Several background topics on the online db, templates, sorting and searching

Related Topics Getting Started - Your first 10 clicks

3 Getting started

There are four Getting Started sections. They are aimed at quickly guiding you from getting to know Movie Collector to becoming familiar with even the most powerful features in a playful and uncomplicated way.

These Getting started sections are: 1. Getting Started - Your first Get a first impression after installing Movie Collector. Intended to 10 clicks familiarize you with the main screen, and show how easy and fun working with Movie Collector is. 2. Getting started - Adding your After trying out some features in the main screen, it is time to start first movie entering your first movie into your own collection file. 3. Getting started - Quick guide Flyer-like overview on Movie Collector's most essential features : how to search, sort, group and filter your movies Tip: Print this section. 4. Getting Started - Useful and Some everyday (slightly advanced) tips to get a little more out of powerful tips Movie Collector.

Related Topics How to use this manual: Find answers about how Movie Collector works

3.1 Getting Started - Your first 10 clicks

The Main Screen Let's start with the main screen of Movie Collector. This is the heart of the program, and understanding its layout is necessary to use Movie Collector. The movies in the database are displayed in a flexible, Explorer-like screen:

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Movie Collector comes with an example database so you can get a quick overview of the features of the program.

10 clicks to discover Movie Collector ! To get a quick impression, and see how cool this program is, just 10 clicks are required:

· Click any movie title in the list view (top right) and see how the movie is shown in the details view, lower right panel. · Click the images tab just above the list view, to switch from the tabular list view to a nice DVD cover view of the movies. Click the list tab to switch back. · Click on the menu view | folders | genre to see how easy movies can be grouped. Click any of the genre folders to see which movies are listed for that genre. · Click the menu view | folders | none to switch back to the full (un-grouped) list. · Click a column header in the list and Movie Collector will sort on that field. For example, clicking

on the header 'Movie release year' will sort all movies in the collection based on their release year. Click on the 'title' column header to sort on title again. · Right-click in the details view to select any of the other cool skins Movie Collector is installed with. · Right-click a movie in the list, and choose 'edit movie'. The edit screen allows you to change or enter information for that movie. Just try it out, change something and click the OK button to confirm the change. Remember you are only working in the demo database so no harm can be done. Check the details view for the change you made.

And that adds up to 10 mouse clicks. Now that you know something about the main screen, let's start adding your own movies !

Related Topics How to use this manual: Find answers about how Movie Collector works

3.2 Getting Started - Adding your first movie

The first thing you want to do after having clicked in the main screen a few times, is start adding the movies to your own collection!

For this, first start a New Database file, using the menu File | New Database. The main screen will display a new and empty database, ready for entering your own movies.

Step 1: Start by clicking on the toolbar icon or selecting the menu Edit | Add Movies Automatically.

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Step 2: Enter the Title or Barcode of a movie and click Search. Movie Collector will search the online database.

Step 3: The screen below displays the search results. Select the movie you own from the results by clicking on it. Double-clicking on a search result will show the details of the movie in the Preview panel to the right of the result list. This will help you to determine which result is the correct one. Click the Add button to add the movie to your personal database.

That's it! You have now added your first movie to your collection!

Movie Collector will ask you to save the collection. Enter a name for your collection (for example " Peter's movies") and hit the Save button. As of now, every time you start up Movie Collector, it will automatically open your personal database which you just named and saved.

Recommended reading: Getting started - Quick guide Getting started - Useful and powerful tips Browsing your database Finding a movie in your database Managing lookup lists

3.3 Getting Started - Quick guide

Once you have read the Getting started section on adding a movie, it would be good to also read this section. It is intended to give you an idea of the functionality of Movie Collector in a "quick guide" style by explaining the basics of the program. Understanding these 4 principles will give you a great advantage when using Movie Collector.

Searching Once movies are entered into your own collection (perhaps also adding personal notes and information to them) how do you easily find them back ? · The quickest way is by using the quick search box in the toolbar. Simply type text you know will be mentioned for the movie you are trying to find, and hit the enter key.

The list in the main screen will change, and filter out only those movies for which the text you entered is found. This can be inside the title, but also in any of the other text fields such as the Plot or Notes field. · For returning to the complete list of your movies (so not only 'Pacino' movies), press the right of the

two funnel icons (which toggles between a filtered and unfiltered list).

Note that the status bar will show what (if any) filter is active.

The left shows you, the collection counts 34 movies, of which only 1 meets the search criteria (the filter here is a more advanced filter as you can see). For such more advanced ways to search your database check the filtering topic. Related topic suggestions: Finding a movie in your database

Sorting and the incremental search When browsing your collection, often it is more convenient to have the movies sorted in some way. Sorting makes looking at the list easier on the eyes, and makes finding a movie quicker if you are scrolling down your list of movies. The easiest way to sort is to click on a header of a column you see in the list, as is marked in red here.

· Clicking on the header will make the whole list sort on that field (here the title). Clicking again will make the list get sorted descending (Z to A); note the little triangle next to the title which indicates that the field 'Title' is used for sorting, ascending.

· When your movies are sorted, you can locate a movie conveniently using your keyboard. Simply start typing, and a selection bar will move down the list as you type. It will try to match your typing with the next closest movie down the list. This is called incremental searching. As long as you type in an uninterrupted manner, what you type is considered one search. If you pause for around one second, the incremental search will reset itself, and any next text you type after that will be considered a new search, starting from the top of the list again.

· It can happen that sorting on one field is not enough. Consider a sort on Genre, so that 'Action' movies are higher up in the list than 'Science Fiction' movies. But within one genre, you would probably prefer the movies to be sorted on title. For such sorting you will need to use the menu view | Sort order | Choose sort fields. It will allow you to define sorting on more than one field (so sorting within sorting).

If sorting seems to misplace movies, please check with the section on sorting properly. Related topic suggestions: Sort field selection screen / Incremental search

Grouping · An other way to create a better overview once the list of movies is getting bigger is to group them. Using grouping, movies which have for instance the same genre will be shown in one explorer like folder. You can group movies using the menu View | Folders | ... The main screen will rearrange, using the left side to display the list of groups in a tree like way..

Click on such a group and the list on the right will show the movies which have that genre (see the edit screen). The bottom right is used for the details view, as you already know it from the getting started section. Grouping is only a process of showing the movies in the database differently, nothing is moved or anything alike: the database is still the same. Note: when your movies are grouped, the list view still allows you to sort, filter and · As with sorting (see above), grouping can also be (incrementally) search the way that is done in levels. For example, if for each genre, you described in the two topics above. So in this would like the movies grouped by release year use the screenshot, the "title" column header was menu View | Folders | Choose Folder fields. clicked, and I typed: bat (after which Batman got selected).

· To un-group, and show the movies as one list again use the menu View | Folders | No Folders. All fields on which you can group, can be managed using the manage lookup list screen, available under the menu Tools | Edit lists. The manage lookup lists screen can also be used to remove names and values that are no longer used, or to merge values (in case you for example mistyped a release year making a folder '20006' appear as well as '2006') Related topic suggestions: Folder view for grouping / Lookup lists

Filtering As you have seen, the quick search box can be used to locate movies quickly and conveniently. For more elaborate searches you may need a filter. One special filter button is the collection status

indicator in the toolbar, allowing you to quickly view only those movies that have been marked with a certain collection status value on the edit screen.

However, you may want to look for a combination of filter conditions a movie should fulfill, such as "Sci-Fi movies older than / released before 1970". For such filters, you can use the menu Search | Set filter | Create/Modify filter(s). By default Movie Collector is equipped with some "demo" filters from which you can read their intention and the way the are built up. Related topic suggestions: The filter screen 3.4 Getting Started - Useful and powerful tips

Now that you can add movies to your collection, as well as find them back quickly, and create custom overviews of the collection, it is time for some tips and tricks.

Changing the look and feel of Movie Collector Movie Collector installs in a default setting, but you can adjust the program in many ways if you like. · Firstly, the main screen (sub)panels can be re-arranged. In the toolbar, you will find the drop down button as shown on the right. The icons are self explanatory in how the screen will be divided. You can also access this function in the menu View | Screen Layout. · Secondly, after choosing the preferred panel layout, you can resize the individual panels chosen for the main screen. The (narrow) bars that separate the panels can be dragged left/right or up/down so that for example the tree, or the details view get more space on your screen. · In every view, the movie details will be shown in the details view.This panel / view is controlled by templates. Changing a template is easy, use the menu View | details view template and you will see a list to choose a template from. Alternatively, you can right click inside the details view to get access to the choices more directly as shown in the image below.

Quite a few templates are included, and more can be downloaded from our site where you will also find a basic explanation on how to create your own template. Also see the section on customizing Movie Collector.

Related topic suggestions: XSL templates Customizing Movie Collector

Adding links - images, websites and movie links Harddrives are getting more affordable, even sizes that allow large movie and audio collections to be stored onto, and more and more people keep digital movie files on their computer. This is why Movie Collector allows you to link the movie entries to digital movie files on your computer easily and quickly. Just open the edit movie screen using the menu Edit | Edit Movie. The tab called "links" will allow you to define both URL type links (so websites) as well as local files (so images, movies, audio files etc) for that movie. Either drag and drop such files onto the top- or bottom half of the links tab, or

use the add buttons and to browse to the files and locations you wish the movie to be linked to.

Once done, in the main screen details view a link will appear which, if clicked, will play the movie (audio / image) file or open the web browser to visit the website you defined.

If you are running a version of Windows that includes Media Center you can also use this link to play the movies from the Media Center feature of Movie Collector.

Related Topics Edit Movie screen Playing digital movie files

Editing more than one movie at once - making batch changes Quite often, you will find yourself in a situation where you would like to change a field value for many movies to one new value. If for example you moved, and the "location" field no longer is accurate ("shelf 3" may have become "box 12" for as long as your movies have not been unpacked yet), you would like to batch change the location value for a number of movies at once.

This can be achieved quite easily. In the main screen list view, use the Windows trick "shift+click" or "control+click" to select any number of movie entries (blue lines indicate a selected movie). Once selected, use the menu Edit | Edit Multiple Movies. What comes up appears like the regular Edit screen, but is an edit screen that enables you to change most field values of many movies at once. Be careful on this screen: any text you type into any field means all selected movies will (after the OK button has been pressed) have that value in the specific field.

Of course you can make a filter on the collection before selecting, to make sure you only select the movies that you want to batch-change (for example set a filter where "location - equals - shelf 3").

A useful related option is setting field defaults. If you for example are about to enter a number of movies into your collection that were all bought in the "shop around the corner" you may want to use the menu Tools | Field defaults prior to adding that batch, and set the default location to "Shop around the corner". After these movies are entered, just clear the default value again.

Related Topics Editing multiple movies at once Lookup lists Field defaults

4 Buying Movie Collector

The Collectorz.com products can be ordered online through our website. To go to the purchase page, click here. Before purchasing you are advised to read the License Agreement.

If you are using a multi-user setup where multiple people need access to the same database, please visit the volume license order page.

Standard and Pro versions Movie Collector is available as a Standard and a Pro edition.

The following table explains the differences between these versions: Standard Edition Pro Edition · No export features · Export to HTML, iPod, Text and XML formats · Print simple lists only · Print lists and other layouts (using customizable templates) · No loan management · Integrated Loan Manager · No complex filters · Complex filtering possibilities · No field set saving possible · Saving of field sets possible · No collection statistics · A specific screen where summary statistics on your collection · No option to make field name are shown. changes · Renaming of data fields allowed · No user definable lookup list · User definable lookup list fields and text fields fields and text fields · Cool Media Center viewer integration. For more information on these differences, check our website or this manual. Sections in the manual that apply to the Pro edition only will have a comment Pro version only.

Trial Edition A free trial edition is available here on our website. The trial version has all the features of the Pro edition. It is limited by the number of movies you can store (50). After buying Movie Collector this limit is removed. Any data you enter in the trial edition will remain available.

Buying Movie Collector and entering the license When you place an order through our website, we automatically process it and send out a license email minutes after receiving the order. The webpages containing personal data and credit card information are protected by 128-bit encryption - ensuring that nobody else can see what you enter.

Once you installed Movie Collector, enter your license to unlock the full edition. Do this with the 'Enter License Key' button in the opening trial screen:

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It can also be entered through the menu Buy Now | Enter License. Entering the license will convert the program into the Standard or Pro editions depending on what you purchased. The Enter License screen will come up:

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A Movie Collector license has two parts: License Name and License Key. Enter these values into the appropriate data fields and then click on the 'Check' button.

Please note that you have to enter the license name exactly as given in your license message, with the same spacing and case, e.g. if your license name is "J. Doe", then typing "J.Doe" will not work, neither will "j. doe" or "John Doe". Make sure you enter the key exactly, including all 12 digits. Also check if there aren't any spaces before or after the name or key (this happens sometimes when copying and pasting).

Movie Collector will contact our website to validate the license. You must be connected to the Internet for this to work properly. If you are using a computer that does not have internet access, please contact Support and we can assist you. Use the Check connection to verify that Movie Collector is allowed to pass any firewall or security software you may be running on your computer.

Check Connection If you get error messages in a red color during a search, the most likely cause is an issue with your internet connection. To test this, press the Check Connection button on this license screen. This should result in a message: "Connection OK". If not, please see the online FAQ for more information.

Related Topics Add Movies Automatically

7.7 Adding images manually

Sometimes no cover image for a movie is found. You can still add covers for these movies manually:

Adding your own covers by browsing your computer If the image is already stored on your computer, add it like this:

Step 1: Open the Edit Movie screen, and select the Covers tab.

Step 2: Click the Browse... button, navigate to the image file, and open it.

Adding a cover from the internet Step 1: Open a web browser like Microsoft Internet Explorer. Go to a search engine, like Google.com, to find a webpage with the cover image.

Step 2: Open the Edit Movie screen, and select the Covers tab.

Step 3: Click on the image on the webpage and drag and drop it onto the Edit Movie screen.

Step 4: A dialog will appear asking if you want to link to the dropped file or save the image on your harddrive (called 'Copy dropped file to default image folder, then link'). Choose the second option.

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Adding a cover using an image scanner If you own an image scanner, it is possible to scan the movie packaging for the cover images and use them in Movie Collector.

Step 1: Make sure your scanner is installed and configured correctly.

Step 2: In Movie Collector, use the Tools | Options menu, select the Images tab, and set the 'Image Scanner (TWAIN compatible)' setting. These first 2 steps will only have to be done once.

Step 3: Place the movie cover on the glass plate of the scanner.

Step 4: Open the Edit Movie screen, and select the covers tab.

Step 5: Click the 'Acquire' button to start the scanning of the cover.

Step 6: If the scanned image did not come out quite right, use the Edit button which will open a graphics editor like Microsoft Paint in which changes can be made.

There are several settings related to image and scanner controls, accessible through the Tools | Options menu.

Related Topics Options screen Repair thumbnails 7.8 Searching with a filter

Movie Collector allows you to "filter" the items that are displayed in the main screen, making it only show a part of the database. For example, you might want to see only your DVDs and not your VHS tapes. Or you might want to list all movies that have "Die Hard" in their title. This is possible using filters.

· If you just need to search for a phrase or name anywhere in your database, the Quick Search is usually easier.

· Also note that filtering on collection status can be done directly from the toolbar using , unless you need to combine it with more conditions.

To search in one specific field or search on multiple values, create a filter:

Step 1: Click the Filter icon and from the drop down choose "Create/Modify filter(s)", or select the menu Search | Filter | Create/Modify filter(s) to open the Filter screen..

Click to view small size image If you take a minute to look at this filter, you will probably see that it intends to filter out of your collection : · all movies that have DVD set as the format AND · for which the title contains the string Star Trek.

Step 2: Click on the Add Filter icon to add a new filter "preset". Note that these will be saved, so they can easily be re used later on.You can name the filter so you can see from its name what it does. For example, name the filter "Star Trek DVDs".

Step 3: Click on the icon to add a condition for the filter. In the 'field' column you can use the drop down to select what field you would like to impose the condition to check you are setting up.

· field allows you to select a field as found on the edit movie screen · comparison allows for a list of ways to make the condition compare · value should contain the value that needs to be compared with. If a field is a list item, the value can be selected by using a drop down in the value column, or typed (which is auto-completed while you type).

Step 4: You can repeat the process of step 3 to add more conditions you would like the filter to use. The AND between two conditions makes a movie appear only if both conditions are met. The other available option is OR (available by clicking on AND between the two conditions). · All parts of a condition can be changed by simply clicking on the field, comparison, value or logical AND / OR operator.

Step 5: Click OK to activate the filter. To turn off the search filter, click the toolbar icon or use menu Search | Filter On/Off.

Notes: · once a filter is in place, the bottom of the main screen will always let you know in case a filter is currently active :

· Filtering on collection status can be done directly from the toolbar using , unless you need to combine it with more conditions. · If you just need to search for a phrase or name anywhere in your database, the Quick Search is usually easier. · Filters are saved, and stored in separate files.

For a more detailed explanation of the filter screen and example, see the Set Filter screen topic.

Related Topics Set Filter screen Finding a movie in your database Searching with wildcards 7.9 Searching with wildcards

The search features: Quick Search and Search Filter both support searching with wildcards. Wildcards are a notation for creating extended search criteria. For example you can search with "b?ll" and this matches both "bill" and "Ball" (if case sensitive searching is not used, see the picture below).

Step 1: In the quick search box enter for example the search term h?mer and hit enter. In the example database, this will filter out the movie of The Simpsons, where Homer is mentioned.

Step 2: Now type h??mer in the quick search box, again followed by an enter. You will see Pirates of the Caribbean filtered out, which was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

Such wildcard searches will also work in the filter screen, be it slightly different. In the filter screen you will have to use 'matches' as comparison, as is shown in this picture :

If you are familiar with wildcards, here is the syntax you can use: * = match any substring (including empty) ? = match any single character # = match any numeric character (0..9) @ = match any alpha character (A..Z, a..z) $ = match any alphanumeric character ~ = match any non-alphanumeric, non-space character

All other will match the given character

Related Topics Find a movie in your database Searching with a Filter Set Filter screen

7.10 Managing lookup lists

Lookup fields are a special type of data field in Movie Collector. They are used when a specific value is shared by more than one movie.

For example, genre is a lookup field because many movies can have one genre (like Comedy or Action). These lists can be used to group your movies on in the main screen, using the menu View | Folders. When you need to manage the values in such a list (e.g. to correct a typo, add a new value, or remove a duplicate) you can do so in the Edit Lookup Lists screen.

Changing a value like for example "Sci-Fi" into "Science Fiction" will mean all movies that previously had "Sci-Fi" as genre, now all will have the new name for this genre. So be careful, changing a lookup list value can / will likely affect more than one movie !

Step 1: Click on the Edit Lists toolbar icon or select menu Tools | Edit Lists.

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Step 2: On the screen that appears click on the folder icon to choose the List to edit.

Step 3: Use the icons

· to add list entries

· to edit list entries

See the Lookup List Reference topic for more detailed information on the icons and the screen.

Editing a lookup value will bring up a separate screen where specifics can be entered, such as the one in the image below :

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Related Topics Lookup List Reference sorting properly Options screen

7.11 Loaning movies

If you have a large movie collection, chances are your family and friends regularly borrow movies from you. In the Pro edition of Movie Collector you can track the lending of movies, so that you won't forget who borrowed what.

Step 1: Loan Out - A movie can be loaned out by selecting it in the List view on the main screen.

Clicking on the toolbar icon . or using the menu Loans | Loan Movie will bring up the Loan Out dialog you see below. You can filter out a certain movie by using the barcode scanner to scan the UPC of the movie or by simply typing the title into the quick search box. Scanning multiple movies (barcode) at once is not supported here.

Click to view small size image

· The Loaned To field is where you enter the name of the borrower or, if they have borrowed before, choose their name from the drop down list. If you wish to add a borrower, just type the new name directly. · From the displayed months Loan Date, Due Date fill in automatically and can be adjusted manually. The time frame between these two can be controlled using the menu Loans | Loan Settings · You can loan several movies in one go. For this, select the movies using +click or +click in the main screen list before using the menu Loan | Loan Movie. Step 2: Return a movie : A movie can be returned by selecting the movie in the list, and clicking on

the toolbar icon or using the menu Loan | Return Movie. This brings up a dialog similar to the Loan movie dialog.

· For returning a movie, the loan details can be adjusted here and the return date can be specified. By default, it is set to the current date.

· A more convenient way to return (manage) the loans is by using the menu Loans | Manage Loans, because this will show only movies that are actually loaned out or have been at some point.

Related Topics Manage Loans screen Printing Print screen Barcode scanning

7.12 Viewing collection statistics

Statistics about your collection are useful for various purposes, e.g. calculating the total value of your collection for your insurance. Or you can see your favorite genres or directors:

Step 1: Select the toolbar icon or menu Tools | Statistics. On the right side of the screen are summary figures about the collection, for example # movies is the number of movies.

Click to view small size image Step 2: In the upper left corner choose a data field you would like statistics on through the button

Related Topics Statistics screen Lookup Lists

7.13 Customizing Movie Collector

The user interface of Movie Collector can be customized by adjusting the toolbar icons, switching the displayed language, editing fields names, and customizing the Details View:

Change the Screen Layout In Movie Collector, you can change the main screen layout using the toolbar dropdown.

The icons more or less speak for themselves, and selecting one will set the main screen panes accordingly. This can be very useful to for example use a wide screen in a more optimal way (selecting a horizontal split e.g). See also the section Getting Started - Useful and powerful tips

Change the Details View layout The Details View on the main screen can be 'skinned' with templates to show different colors and layouts. Change the template via menu View | Details View Template. For more information on creating templates, see XSL templates

Change the Columns of the main screen's list The main screen's list displays several columns (representing data fields). You can control which columns should be displayed, as well as in what order. For this, use the menu View | Columns | Choose Columns. For more information, see the Column field selection screen.

Change Field Names (Pro version only) All field names in Movie Collector can be changed to your own liking. For example, if live in the United States, you might want to change the "Audience Rating" field to "MPAA Rating". This is done through menu Tools | Field Names.

Click to view small size image Step 1: Click on an entry in the Your Name column (left column).

Step 2: Click on the 'Rename' button or press F2, and type the new name followed by Enter.

Step 3: A keyboard shortcut can be set through this screen as well. Include an ampersand character (&) preceding the letter you want as a shortcut key. So, for example, if you want Alt+T to be the short-cut key for jumping to the Title field, change the Title field name to "&Title". A line under the character will only appear in the Edit Movie screen.

Avoid renaming fields Movie Collector has a pre-defined purpose for such as the barcode or format field. Abusing such fields for your own purpose and renaming them can cause problems in future versions.

Notes on renaming fields : · The field names changes are stored in the database file itself, as well as in the Windows Registry. This means that changes won't be reflected immediately across database files - but new databases will use the new field names. · A renamed field will not be translated anymore when you change the language via Tools | Language. A manual change takes precedence over the default translation.

Customize Toolbar Step 1: The toolbar at the top of the main screen can be customized through the menu View | Toolbars | Customize. Click on the checkbox to show or hide a toolbar (i.e. a group of related icons).

Click to view small size image

Step 2: Click on the 'Commands tab' to see a listing of all icons. Add an icon to the Toolbar by selecting it in the 'Commands' list on the right and dragging onto the Toolbar, in the location you want.

Click to view small size image If the toolbar becomes too confusing, it can be reset through menu View | Toolbars | Reset.

Switch Language

The Movie Collector interface has been translated to multiple languages. You can switch using menu Tools | Languages. The list of supported languages is growing steadily because the translations are contributed by users. If you are interested in translating Movie Collector into your language, please download the Translation Editor for more information.

Related Topics Main screen Change the look and feel of Movie Collector XSL Templates 7.14 Updating file links

When using Movie Collector you may see a yellow exclamation mark in the Details View as follows:

This means, that for this movie the link to the cover image is no longer correct. In Movie Collector the image files are stored outside the database file and referenced by a link on the edit movie screen. This could be caused by moving or deleting the image/thumbnail files. Files defined as Links can also be repaired with this function.

Step 1: Check if the image files are still on your computer. You can do this by opening the edit movie screen, and on the covers tab check the file and path of the link. If the image is still there, you can repair the links through menu Tools | Maintenance | Update File Links.

Click to view small size image

Step 2: Click on the Browse button to point to the folder where the image files may be or have been

moved to.

Step 3: Next click on Search and Movie Collector will try to locate the missing image files.

Step 4: Click on 'Update' to re-link the missing image files. Click the Close button to exit the update screen

Notes on re linking image files: · This will only find files if they have been moved, not if they have been renamed. · If there are multiple files with the same name, the first one will be used. · If the image files have disappeared, it may be possible to download them again through Automatically updating movies.

Related Topics Repairing thumbnails Making backups

7.15 Repairing thumbnails

When you are using Image View on the main screen, you may come across the following:

The gear icon means that there is a missing thumbnail image for this movie. You can easily repair this.

Step 1: Select menu Tools | Maintenance | Repair Thumbnails.

· A thumbnail is a small version of the cover image of a movie, which is used to speed up the Image View. A thumbnail is generated automatically when you add a cover. · Thumbnails are stored as separate files in the folder determined by the Default Folder for Thumbnail Files (see the Images tab of the Tools | Options screen). If a thumbnail file is missing (e.g. after an incomplete restore of your system), it can be generated from the original image file at any time using step 1. If the original image files have disappeared, it may be possible to download them again through Automatically updating movies.

Related Topics Updating file links Adding images Making backups

7.16 Importing movies

If you have a list of your movies in a text file or other format, in some cases you can import your existing collection information. There is the Text Import and DVD Profiler import. It is also possible to import movies from another Movie Collector database file.

Import from other collection This is a merge feature, that will let you select a database file to merge into the current open Movie Collector database. The lookup lists of the two databases are merged by comparing the Sort Names of the lookup items: two lookup items with the same Sort Names are merged to one item.

Be careful with importing databases. Importing a database into itself will lead to duplicates in your collection.

Text Import This feature works by importing a text file with Title and/or UPC (barcode) information.

Step 1: Select menu File | Import From | Text, which opens the following screen:

Click to view small size image

Step 2: Click on 'Browse' to locate the import text file. Make sure the data is in the right column order : · Title first and then UPC (barcode), if available.

This can be prepared using a spreadsheet program like Excel. The import file needs to be in the form of ASCII text. The data should appear in the Preview section at the bottom.

Click to view small size image Step 3: Click on OK. This creates entries in the current database for each entry in the text file. They remain selected by default immediately after importing in the main screen.

Step 4: Using the newly imported movies you can use the menu Update Movies Automatically to search the info sources and gather more information and covers. (choose the menu Edit | Select All in case in the main screen not all new entries are selected).

Import from DVD Profiler To import a collection that was created with DVD Profiler, first export your collection to XML using the DVD Profiler program. This can be done using DVD Profiler's menu File | export Profile database. Using this file, select File | Import from | DVD Profiler from within Movie Collector and navigate to this *.xml file to import it into Movie Collector.

After importing has completed, the cover images will point to the Movie Collector images folder (which you can set via Tools | Options). You can either move your cover images from the DVD Profiler folder to this folder, or you can use Tools | Maintenance | Update Image Links to update the file paths to where the images are currently located (so point to the DVD Profiler location). We recommend moving the images to the Movie Collector Images folder, so you can delete the DVD

Profiler folder if you wish.

Import from My Movies To import a collection that was created with the program My Movies, first export your collection to XML using the My Movies Collection management program. This can be done using the menu File | Export | XML file. Save the file, and close the Collection manager. Now start Movie Collector, and select File | Import from | My Movies from within Movie Collector. Navigate to the saved / exported *.xml file to import it into Movie Collector.

After importing has completed, the cover images will still point to the "My Movies" image folder. You can either move your cover images to the Movie Collector image folder and re link the images, or you can leave the images in the My Movies folder. Note that if you leave them in the My Movies folder, you will have to take care when making backups that you backup this image folder (which is then not located in the Movie Collector folder).

There is currently no direct, full data text import for the database.

Related Topics Automatically updating movies

7.17 Exporting data to text format

If you are looking to share your collection information with your friends this is a simple method to use. Create the text file, attach it to an email and send it. This feature can also be used to transfer data into Excel or other database programs like MS Access.

Step 1: Select menu File | Export to | Text:

Click to view small size image

Step 2: Specify the destination and filename in the Destination File area. You can also use the 'Browse' button to overwrite an existing file.

Step 3: Click on the Fields button on the right to adjust which data fields are exported and what the column order is. Learn more about the Column field Selection screen.

Step 4: Click on Export to create the file. Giving the file the extension .csv will make e.g. Excel help you via a wizard to import such a list of text into columns properly.

Related Topics Text export screen Column field selection screen Data field meanings

7.18 Exporting data to HTML

The Export to HTML function creates HTML pages of your movies, for use on your homepage or website. You can create one index page listing all movies (with one line per movie) which link to detail pages with one page for each movie. Image - and hyperlinks are automatically generated to function correctly.

Step 1: Select menu File | Export to | HTML.

Click to view small size image

Step 2: In the section movies to export, choose whether to export all or the currently selected movies. Choose a destination folder and index filename.

Step 3: Click on the Index Template tab. This section is for adjusting the index listing of movies. Select Customize Template.

Click to view small size image

Step 4: Click on the tab Details Template. This is for controlling the pages for each individual movie . The major option is 'Select Template for Details Pages'. Here you can choose different layouts of the information.

Click to view small size image

Step 5: Click the 'Export' button to create the webpages.

· After you have exported the files, you need to upload them to a server that hosts webpages (web space). For uploading you need File Transfer (FTP) software like http://www.coffeecup.com/free- ftp/. Quite often Internet Service Providers (ISP's) will give you free web space along with your internet connection service. Your ISP will provide the details required to setup your own website.

Related Topics HTML export screen Data field meanings XSL Templates Column field selection screen

7.19 Exporting to PDA, iPod and XML

The information stored by Movie Collector can be exported to portable devices like PDAs and iPods. There is also an XML export for use in external databases or migration to the Mac.

Export to XML XML stands for EXtensible Markup Language. It is a format that includes meta tags around the data that is exported. For example the purchase date for a movie would look like this 2006-08-19. XML comes in numerous formats. In other words, an XML file of two different programs most likely will not be written in the same way. In the Export to XML screen you can export the full list of movies or a partial listing.

The definition of the Movie Collector XML format is fixed, and it is also used by the Export to HTML, Print and Details view XSL stylesheets. Tip: The easiest way to study the XML structure (handy if you are creating your own templates) of Movie Collector is to do the following :

Step 1: create a (test)movie entry using the menu Edit | Add movie Manually Step 2: enter data into all fields on the edit movie screen Step 3: and then right-click in the Details View and choose to Save as XML.

Export to iPod Notes You can export your collection to an Apple iPod through menu File | Export to | iPod Notes. This brings up the screen:

Click to view small size image

Step 1: Choose whether to export your complete list or selected movies. Step 2: Make sure your iPod is connected to your computer and click on the Find my iPod button to link to your iPod. Step 3: Choose whether to 'Include "In Collection Status" indicators. This shows as a marker flag

on the iPod screen. Step 4: Choose to include Detail pages or not. If you choose to, there is the option of using the Default Layout or Custom Layout. The Custom Layout lets you choose which data fields are exported and in which ordered. This is done through the 'Fields' button.

· Keep in mind the iPod export only works correctly for a listing of 1000 items or less. This is a limitation of the iPod storage area itself. · Using the export a second time will overwrite the previously exported data on your iPod.

Export to Palm / Pocket PC

Movie Collector can used together with a PDA. This feature has been specifically designed to work ListPro, a list management program for PDAs. ListPro is produced by Ilium software.

Here is how Collectorz.com information looks in ListPro (showing an example from Music Collector):

Click to view small size image Setup 1. Download the trial version of List Pro and install it on your computer, if you do not already have it. Its available here. 2. In Movie Collector (Pro edition), choose File | Export To | Palm or Pocket PC (ListPro) | All Items. 3. Choose the location and name for the export file. 4. Start ListPro 5. Select File | New File, and create a new file. 6. When the New File Wizard finishes, the New List Wizard will start. 7. Select Next, then choose Movie Collector and click Next. 8. At the Column Selections screen, simply click Next. 9. Enter a name for your list, and click Finish. 10. Select Tools | Import Items From File 11. At the Columns to Import screen, click OK 12. At the Choose Import File screen, change "Files of Type" to "Comma Separated Values" and

then open the CSV file you exported from Movie Collector. 13. You should now see your data in ListPro, and you can now synchronize with your PDA.

If you do not have the Collectorz.com templates:

1. Download this file to your PC: Collectorz.clf, here 2. Open ListPro on your PC 3. Select File | Open and choose the Templates.clf file that is in My Documents. 4. Select Tools | Import Lists 5. Choose the Collectorz.clf file you downloaded, then place check marks next to the names of your Collectorz.com software and finish the import wizard. 6. Now follow the instructions above to import your Collectorz data into ListPro.

The export to PDA is a special version of the text export. If you are looking to customize the PDA export, use the Text export to adjust the information exported. You will need to adjust the import template in ListPro to reflect the customized import file.

Related Topics Data field meanings Column field selection screen

7.20 Updating Movie Collector

Movie Collector is regularly updated with new features and bug fixes. Movie Collector has an integrated function to upgrade itself to the latest release:

Step 1: Go to menu Help | Check for Update. As a licensed user you are entitled to free bug fixes and minor updates. When you upgrade, all data entered in the previous version will be preserved. Of course, it is always a good idea to maintain a backup of your data regardless.

Step 2: Movie Collector will try to contact the Collectorz.com website to check for an updated version. If there is a new version you will see a message such as this one.

Click to view small size image

Step 3: Click on the Update Now button which brings up:

Click to view small size image

Step 4: Click Yes. This will start the downloading of the updated version. The installer will open up and install the new version. Follow the instructions to install the latest version of Movie Collector.

Notes on upgrading: · Of course when upgrading, none of your data will be lost, and once the installation has completed the new version of Movie Collector will start up and you can continue working with your movies. A

good tip though is to make regular backups of your data anyway, see the section on making backups. (as harddrives can fail, and that happens more frequently than you may think). · You can set how often Movie Collector should check for updates via Tools | Options, on the Check for Update tab.

Related Topics Making backups of your data

7.21 Transfering data to a new computer

In case you are transferring your data from a Windows computer to a Mac, please check the following section. Here you will find instructions to transfer your data from one Windows computer to an other Windows computer.

Step 1: The best way to get Movie Collector running on a new computer is to do a "fresh" install, using the original installer. If you do not have that installer anymore, you can download it from the Download page. Run the installer on the new computer to install Movie Collector.

Step 2: Check the section on Making backups. It will include instructions on what files are required to make a proper backup. You can use this same information to copy the data off the old computer, and onto the new computer. Note that the folder you copy the data from (old computer) may not be the same folder you need to copy the data to (for example if the new computer is running Windows Vista, and the 'old computer' was not).

Step 3: After the data has been copied over, start Movie Collector on the new PC and use File | Open Database to open your database file. That is the database file that you just copied. After that, you should see your own data again.

Step 4: If the location of the cover images on the new PC is different, you have to use the Update Image Links screen to let Movie Collector update the cover image links automatically.

Note: The new computer should have at least the same version number of Movie Collector as the computer you copied the database off. If the version of Movie Collector on the new system is newer than the one on your old system, Movie Collector may convert your database to a new format. This will keep your data intact, and a backup file will be created of the old database format. See the popup that will come up

Related Topics Making backups of your data

7.22 Transfering data to a Mac

It is possible to transfer data from the Windows edition to the Mac edition of Movie Collector. In order to transfer the data you need the Pro edition.

Step 1: Make sure to export all movies, and that your language is set to English (Tools | Languages | English), then Select File | Export to | XML.

Step 2: Copy all the cover image files which are stored under the Data folder. The full file path is specified through Tools | Options, Images tab.

Step 3: Copy both the XML file and the Images folder over to your Mac. By default on the Mac, Movie Collector will expect them in the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Movie Collector/images

Step 4: On the Mac, go to File | Import From | XML. This will import the text information.

Step 5: For the Images you need to go to Tools | Update Image Links. This will re-link the music to the image files.

The data cannot be transferred from Mac to Windows.

Related Topics Export to PDA, iPod and XML

7.23 Making backups of your data

TIP: If you accidentally removed a lot of movies from your database, close Movie Collector but DO NOT restart Movie Collector. Instead, locate the backup file that was stored upon the previous successful startup of Movie Collector and make a copy of the backup file to another folder (preferably the folder as shown in the screenshot below). Rename this copied backup file and start Movie Collector. Now use the menu File | Open Database to open this copy. This will make the situation revert to the last state of the database.

Regular backups of your data are also very important to prevent losing your work when your hard disk crashes or you accidentally deleted files from your computer..

Step 1: The first step is to know the name of your active database file. The name of the open database file is displayed on the main screen in the upper left corner. Note that the Movie Collector database file ends with .mvc . In this case the database filename is Henk-Jan.mvc'.

Step 2: Next find the file location by going to menu File | Open Database. A Windows File Explorer will open to the directory of your database file. Click on the drop down menu at the top to find the path to your database file. The default path is: \My Documents\Movie Collector or \Documents\Movie Collector on Windows Vista)

Click to view small size image Remember the folder you see here and press Cancel.

Step 3: Copy the contents of this complete folder to another storage device such as another hard drive or CD/DVD. It is best to use another storage device in case your current hard drive fails. You need backup software like Nero BackItUp for this.

It is a good idea to copy this entire folder and not just the database, because some of the Movie Collector information is not stored in the database file. Check to see what files to backup: Data, Images and Settings · Database file(s) A Movie Collector database is a file with the extension .mvc (see step 1 above). It is possible to use multiple database files. In most cases we recommend storing all your movies in one file though and using the data fields to group movies. For example if your movie collection has multiple owners, this can be tracked with the Owner data field rather than making one database per owner. The drawback of using multiple database files is that you cannot search across all of them in one go, and that there is no mechanism for transferring movie information between database files. The folder of the database file can be found through the steps 1 and 2 mentioned above.

· Images The cover images are stored as individual files, outside of the database. The movies only have links to these images. There are two kinds of image files: the original cover images downloaded from the info sources (or added by you manually), and thumbnail images that are created from the originals. The thumbnails are created for performance reasons. When using Movie Collector's features like the Images view (menu View | Images) these thumbnails will be displayed. The

default folder where the actual covers are stored can be found in the menu Tools | Options, the Images tab. Make sure that you backup this image folder as well.

· User files (Pro version only) Some Movie Collector settings are stored in external files. By default, these will be also placed in the folder mentioned in step 2 above. To make sure they are placed there, check the setting in menu Tools | Options, the path mentioned in User Files Folder. These files are a number of XML files, as well as some TXT files. See the column field selection screen the sort field selection screen the folder view selection screen the filter screen the capitalization list and the title sort list for what settings can be saved.

· XSL Templates Movie Collector uses a number of templates that install with the program, which are placed in a folder under the location of Movie Collector itself: C:\Program Files\Collectorz.com\Movie Collector\Templates Movie Collector also looks for user-made XSL templates in your My Documents folder. The folder will have a path similar to: C:\Documents and Settings\[My AccountName]\My Documents\Movie Collector\Templates See XSL templates to learn more about their usage.

· Search Scripts Movie Collector uses Perl scripts to search and download from most info sources. By default Movie Collector downloads the latest versions of the scripts from our website when you perform a search. This can be turned off through the Settings button in the Add movies Automatically screen. Using this option you can customize the scripts yourself if you are familiar with Perl. In case you did customize scripts, it is recommended to include them in the backup.

Related Topics Transferring your data to a new computer

8 Reference

The topics in the Reference section provide a comprehensive listing of background information about Movie Collector, its menus, screens, fields, and more. The nature is mostly descriptive, whereas the commons tasks and advanced tasks are task based.

An overview of the reference section: Menus · All Movie Collector menus and sub-menus explained.

Screens · All Movie Collector screens explained.

DVD / CD carousels How to use Movie Collector with carousels: · The CenturionCD carousel · The Ziotek / Dacal carousel

Multi-user support and read-only mode · How to share your collection by placing it in a shared (network) folder. · Messages and tips about the database locking file for sharing the database.

Miscellaneous · Sorting properly, a full explanation of all sorts of sorting related issues (title, people's names etc). · Barcode scanning reference : how to use barcode scanners. · Folder views: some tips and background information. · A full list of all data fields you can find on the edit movie screen. · Shortcuts in Movie Collector and the MediaCenter viewer. · Additional information on templates.

For common tasks - i.e. things you need to know immediately to get started with Movie Collector - please see the Common Tasks section. For less common tasks - i.e. things you do not need to know immediately to get started with Movie Collector - please see the Advanced Tasks section.

8.1 Menus

At the top of the Movie Collector screen, you will find a number of menus. Select one of the main menus to see information about it:

An overview of the menus : File · For all collection / database related actions such as to open and save the database. · For exporting and importing options. · For printing.

Edit · For all movie related actions, such as adding, editing, deleting and updating. · For Submitting movies to the Collectorz.com online Movie Database.

Search · To search for movies, using the quick search and filters. · To show movies of a particular collection status.

View · Control the way the main screen looks, which fields you wish to display and more.

Loans · Keep track of your loaned movies (Pro edition only!)

Tools · To set program options such as image folders, backup options and Media Center options. · View collection statistics. · Repair broken links to your cover images. · Initialize your Collectorz.com Laser barcode scanner · and more ...

Buy · Only available as a menu if Movie Collector is run in trial mode.

Help · Access this manual. · Visit various Movie Collector related websites. · View your license information, and the version of Movie Collector. · Check for newer Movie Collector versions.

8.1.1 File menu New Database Create a new database file. Movie Collector will ask for the file name when you try to close the software or switch database files.

Open Database Open an existing database file. It brings up a file browser where you can search and find database files. Movie Collector database files end in *.mvc .

Save Database Save changes to the database. Changes are also saved to the database file automatically after every change you make.

Save Database As Save the database under a different name. Useful for renaming the database file.

Print Print your movie data. See Printing and Print screen

Import from | Other Import data from another collection into your collection. See Importing a Collection Movie Collector database

Import from | Text Import data from a text file into your collection. See Importing text data

Import from | DVD Import data from DVD Profiler into your collection. See DVD Profiler import Profiler

Import from | My Import data from My Movies into your collection. See My Movies import. Movies

Export menus : Pro version only Export your collection to a text file. See Exporting data to text format and Export to | Text Text export screen

Export your collection to HTML. See Exporting data to HTML and HTML Export to | HTML export screen

Export your collection to XML. See Exporting to XML Export to | XML Export your collection to an iPod. See Exporting to iPod Export to | iPod Notes Export to | Palm/PocketExport your collection to a PDA. See Exporting to PDA PC (ListPro)

Exit Close the program, saving changes.

8.1.2 Edit menu Add Movie Automatically Add a new entry to your database by downloading data from the online database. See Add movies automatically

Add Movie Manually Add a new entry to your database by typing the data yourself.

Edit Movie Change the values of any field for one movie. See Editing Movies and Edit movie screen This function is disabled if there are multiple movies selected.

Edit Multiple Movies Change the values of any field for multiple movies at the same time. See Editing multiple movies This function is disabled if there is only one movie selected.

Duplicate Movies Copy a movie entry including all its fields. This is useful if you are adding a (movie) series manually.

Remove Movie Remove a movie entry from the database. A confirmation screen will come up by default. This can be controlled through menu Tools | Options.

Update Movies Update entries in your collection by downloading data from the online Automatically database. See Automatically updating movies

Submit to Collectorz.com Submit entries over the internet to the Collectorz.com Movie Database Movie Database Select All Selects all movies in the List view. This is useful if you want to take an action on a part (and not the whole) of your collection, such as printing a list of loaned items or a specific genre.

8.1.3 Search menu Quick Search Search for a phrase anywhere in your database. See Find a movie in your database

Filter (Pro version Filter your database on a specific value in a specific field. See Filter screen only) Filter On/Off When you have a filter defined, turn it on or off. See Find a movie in your database

In Collection Quickly filter your database on the 'Collection Status' field, without having to set Status a filter. See Find a movie in your database

8.1.4 View menu Folders Group your database into folders. See Folder view

Show Empty Display folders which contain no movies. See Folder View Folders List Display movies in a list with one row per movie. See List view

Image Display movies in a grid, showing the cover image. See Image view

Columns Select which fields are shown in List view. See Browsing your database

Sort Order Select in which order your database is sorted. See Find a movie in your database

Details View Select the color scheme and layout for the Details View. See XSL Templates Template Toolbars Customize the toolbar of the main screen. See Customizing Movie Collector

Screen Layout Will allow you to change the arrangement of the main screen's panels.

Refresh Refresh the main screen which can fix graphics problems if they occur.

8.1.5 Loans menu Loan Movie Mark a movie as loaned out. See Loan movie

Return Movie Mark a movie as returned. See Return movie

Manage Loans Show all outstanding loans. See Managing loans

Loan Settings Set the default loan period. See Loan settings

8.1.6 Tools menu Field Defaults Set the default values to be used when creating a new entry. See Field defaults

Field Names (Pro version Rename the fields in the database. See Customizing data field names only) Edit Lists Maintain the lookup lists. See Managing lookup lists

Statistics (Pro version only) Show statistics for your database. See Collection statistics

Maintenance | Update File Fix broken links to cover images and other external files. See Update Links image links

Maintenance | Re-Assign Reset the values of the index field. This is useful if there are gaps in Index Fields the index and you want to renumber starting from 1.

This process is irreversible (it cannot reversed other than by hand, per movie).

Maintenance | Convert Change the value of the price fieldsof all movies (cover price, Currency purchase price, and current value) by a factor. This is useful if you want to change all prices from, say, dollars to euros.

Maintenance | Repair Fix broken thumbnail images in the Image View. See Regenerate Thumbnails thumbnail images

Maintenance | Reset to Reset the screen sizes and positions, and other user settings to the Defaults default configuration. This is useful if Movie Collector has become stuck in an unusable state.

Options Configure the user settings of Movie Collector. See Options screen

Language Change the language of the menus and screens. See Customizing Movie Collector

Start Media Center (Pro Start up Media Center, showing the movie list. Note that Media Center version only) must be installed onto the computer to use either of the two menus, and is available in the Pro version only.

Initialize Flic scanner Search your system for a connected Collectorz.com barcode scanner. See Adding movies using barcodes

8.1.7 Buy menu This menu is only visible in the trial edition.

Buy Now Visit the Collectorz.com website to purchase Movie Collector. or 'Upgrade Now' is shown if Movie Collector detects a license key from a Upgrade Now previous version.

Enter License Info Enter your license information to unlock the licensed edition. See Buying Movie Collector

8.1.8 Help menu Manual Open the Help manual for Movie Collector

Getting Started Open the Getting Started guide

Collectorz.com Visit the Collectorz.com website Website MovieCollector.net Visit the Collectorz online movie database as well as how to submit a movie to our Movie database.

Customer Support Visit the Support section of the Collectorz.com website

Check for Update Check if there is a newer product version. See Update Movie Collector

Your License Info Display your license information. See Ordering Collectorz.com Products Note: This menu item is only shown if your copy is licensed.

About Display information screen about Movie Collector. This is useful if you want to know the exact version and build number you are running.

8.2 Screens

Select one of the screens you wish to see a full explanation about. At the top of each screen you will find a link to a related task the screen is used in.

An overview of the screens: Main screen · The main screen when starting up Movie Collector.

Add Movies Automatically · To add movies using one single screen; search several movies in one go.

Edit Movie screen · Edit movie details.

Print screen · To search for movies, using the quick search and filters. · To show movies of a particular collection status.

Set filter screen (pro version only) · Control the way the main screen looks, which fields you wish to display and more.

Column Field Selection screen · Select fields to be shown in the main screen list. · Select fields that should be printed. · Select fields for an export to HTML, text, or iPod.

Sort Field Selection screen · Select what fields the list should be sorted on in the main screen. · Select what fields the printed list should be sorted on. · Select what fields the export to HTML or text, or the re indexing should be done on.

Folder Field Selection screen (pro version · Select what fields should be used to group your only) movies (e.g on genre).

Manage loans screen (pro version only) · Keep track of your loaned movies (Pro edition only!).

Box set screen · Create box set names to assign to your movies that belong to a box set. Field defaults screen · Set up default values for a number of fields when adding movies to your collection. Statistics screen (pro version only) · View and print details about your collection, such as average DVD price, average running time etc. · Make bar charts of your collection, showing the number of movies per release year for example.

Text export screen (pro version only) · To export your collection to a text file (which e.g. can be imported into Excel). Html export screen (pro version only) · To export your collection to html, ready to upload to your website. Options screen · To set program options such as image folders, backup options and Media Center options and more.

Search settings screen · Set your preferences related to the online searches.

8.2.1 Main screen USED IN TASK: Getting Started - your first 10 clicks

This is the main screen of Movie Collector. The blue dots identify sections of the screen. Descriptions are below. Note that this sections assumes the default layout, which if changed will make the panels appear differently.

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Menu bar of drop down menus with Movie Collector features. Toolbar for quick access to Movie Collector features. The toolbar can be customized so the most used features are positioned for your convenience. List and Images tabs. Clicking on the List tab gives a spreadsheet-like listing of your movies. The Images tab shows your movies as a gallery of cover images. In this screenshot List View is selected. On the left side of the List View are icons representing the In Collection status of a movie. These icons can be turned off through Tools | Options, General tab. To select a movie at random (useful to decide what to watch), press Ctrl+R. Tree view of the movies, displaying a hierarchical tree of your collection.. Note that the so called "children" of the selection in the tree will be shown in the list view. In this image the tree root (i.e.

the collection) is selected called "example.mvc" which will show all movies in the list view. Selecting e.g. "Sex and the city" in the tree will show the discs of that entry in the list view (point 5), whereas selecting a disc will display the episodes on that disc in the list view. Contents of the List View which displays the movies in your database, or the child item(s) belonging to the item selected in the tree. The view can be sorted using the column headings, and the columns can also be changed through the Column field selection screen. Details View, which provides detailed information about the currently selected movie in your collection. The Detail View can be adjusted to different templates through menu View | Details View Template.

Movie icons In the main screen, you may notice not all movie entries have the same icon in front of the names in the list. First, the (normally) green tick is shown, referring to the collection status of the movie. This collection status indicator can be turned off using the options screen.

Next, an icon is shown referring to the format of the movies, as it can be entered on the edit screen. You can choose "DVD", but also "Blue-Ray", "HD-DVD", "DivX", and many more. See also the edit lookup lists screen.

Layout and status bar The layout of the main screen can be changed by dragging the divider between the tree and the list (if any) and the divider between the list and the Details View. The center parts of the dividers (the parts with the small arrows on it) are small "buttons" that can be used to hide a section completely, click it again to make the section reappear. Note that you cannot drag the divider there.

Notice the bottom bar of the main screen, where you can see the total amount of movies in collection, the number of selected movies, and what sort of filter is set on the collection. This is a good way to check why certain movies are obscured in the main list.

For more information about using the main screen, see Browsing your database.

Related Topics Folder View Lookup Lists Finding a movie in your database

8.2.2 Add Movies Automatically screen USED IN TASK: Adding a movie

Open the Add Movies Automatically through the toolbar icon or through the menu Edit | Add Movie Automatically.

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Search Results filtering The Collectorz.com Movie database can deliver a lot of results. You can filter out irrelevant results by using the search results filter. This helps you find the correct result more quickly. You can filter on Regions: · Show All: Show all editions, no filtering · Show None: Show only movie results, no media data (like DVD or Blu-Ray) at all · Region x: Show only editions for region x (where x goes from 1 to 6). When you have a filter active, you can see how many results are filtered out by looking at the numbers after the name in the Search Queue.

Context Menu The Search Queue has a context menu that you can open by right-clicking in the Search Queue area. The context menu has commands related to Search Queue entries: · Search Search the database for just the selected entries in the Search Queue. Note that the Selected search queue supports multiple selection. · Add Add the found results to the database. The 'Add Selected' is also an override option. It

Selected will add a movie, even if it already exists in the database. The 'Add Selected' does not work if there are no results selected. · Remove Remove the selected entries from the Search Queue. To remove all the entries from Selected the Search Queue, first use the 'Select All' command and then 'Remove Selected' · Reset Clear the search results for the selected entries, so that you can search for them again. Selected

Preview pane The lower right corner of the screen is the Preview pane. A preview of the result information is shown if you click on the link in the Preview pane or by double clicking on the search result. There is the option to change the Preview Pane XSL template. This is done by right-clicking in this region and selecting from the template list.

Related Topics Add Movies Automatically Automatically updating movies Search settings screen XSL Templates

8.2.3 Edit Movie screen Open the Edit movie screen. This can be done in 3 ways:

· Clicking the Edit movie icon in the toolbar. · Through menu Edit | Edit Movie. · By double-clicking on a movie in the List view.

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Fields For a full description of what all the data fields are used for, see the data field explanation. Tips · For any date field, like Purchase Date, press the F4 key to enter today's date. For more shortcuts, see the shortcut reference section. · In case you wish to add a (new) barcode, just use the scanner when the edit screen has opened. It will put the scanned barcode directly in the barcode field for that specific movie.

Buttons On the edit movie screen you will find several buttons Buttons on all tabs: · OK Close the edit screen, and go back to the main screen. · Cancel Close the edit screen, and go back to the main screen without saving changes made to the movie. You can control using an option on the options screen, if you would like to be asked to confirm cancelling changes.

· Help Open the manual, at the topic of the screen. · Next and Navigate through your movie collection without having to open the Edit screen each Previous time. The active tab and field are remembered. The order of the movies is determined by how they are sorted on the main screen. · Update Retrieve more data using the online database; see Automatically updating movies. · Submit Send your movie data to the Collectorz.com movie database. Buttons on the cover tab: · Browse Browse your computer for a cover image you would like to link to the movie in your collection. · Clear Clear a cover; this will only "unlink" with the movie, and not delete the cover file from your computer. · Copy Copy the cover image to your Windows clipboard. · Acquire Use an image scanner to scan a cover and link it to the movie. Only available when an image scanner is installed on your computer. · Edit Use the image editing program to edit the cover (defining the editing program can be done using the settings button. · Settings A number of settings related to the location of your cover images, thumbnails and image scanner.

Icons per Tab

Across the different tabs of the edit movie screen, you will find several icons.

The Movie Tab · The first will add a value to the list of lookup items you click the icon for. In the text entry box for "genre" for example, type a new genre and click the add icon to have this new genre added. · The second will bring you to the manage lookup list screen for the field you click this icon for.

· The first will capitalize the title you are using the icon for, see the capitalization tab to define the settings by which this should be done. · The second will bring you to that capitalization tab so you can check, and alter the settings by which capitalization is done.

· The first will create a sort title according to the settings defined on the sort titles tab. · The second will bring you to that title sort tab so you can check, and alter the settings by which splitting a title into the Title sort part is done.

The Cast & Crew Tab To add a "person". What sort of person depends on where the button is used from..

To change a person, making a drop-down available. Alternatively you can click directly on the name itself to invoke the drop-down.

To edit a person.

To remove a person. Note that this will not remove the person's details as they are stored in the lookup list, but will only remove the reference to this person for the movie you are editing.

To move a selected cast- or crew member up in the order in which these are shown.

To move a selected cast- or crew member down in the order in which these are shown.

The Episodes & Features Tab The Episodes & Features tab is intended for TV series, as well as multi-disc releases like Special Editions. To add disc. See also the section on Multi-disc DVD editions.

To remove the currently selected disc. Selecting a disc is done clicking on the tab indicating the disc number. To add an episode. See also the section on Multi-disc DVD editions.

To edit an episode.

To remove an episode.

To move a selected episode up in the order in which these are shown.

To move a selected episode down in the order in which these are shown.

The Links Tab The Links tab is intended for linking to files outside of Movie Collector. When links are created, the can be clicked from within Movie Collector in the details view of the main screen. There are two types of links:

1. Online links These are website links (URLs). The description will be shown in the Details View, and clicking on it will open the website in your web browser. You can drag & drop a URL from your browser to add a link. Alternatively, use the buttons as indicated in this table to manually add a URL. The buttons available in the "online" pane, are :

To add a link to a website, such as such as http://www.imdb.com.

To edit the selected link to a website (URL).

To remove a selected URL.

To move a selected URL up in the order in which these are shown.

To move a selected URL down in the order in which these are shown.

To open a selected URL in your default web browser.

Tip: When adding a link, you can first select and copy (using Control+V) an address from the address bar in your web browser. Adding a link using the add icon will then automatically fill the URL field of the screen that pops up.

2. Local links These are links to files on your own computer. This is useful if you want to link to multiple images of

a movie, digital movie files etc You may also drag and drop files onto this lower half to link the files directly. There are 3 types of local files, along with a few buttons to manipulate the values and references: To add a link to a movie file, external to the database.

To add a link to an image file. Windows file associations will be used to start the proper program when clicking the link for such a filetype. To add any other file. Windows file associations will be used to start the proper program when clicking the link for such a filetype. To edit a selected link to a local file.

To remove a selected link to a local file.

To move a selected local file link up in the order in which these are shown in the edit screen, as well as the details view. To move a selected local file link down in the order in which these are shown in the edit screen, as well as the details view. To open a local file after selecting a defined file / link in the list, again using the designated program using Windows file associations.

Note: if local links are broken because the files have been moved to a different folder on your system, you can use the Update File Links function to fix them.

Related Topics Editing Movies Editing multiple movies Data field meanings Adding Images manually Automatically updating movies List management Lookup Lists Collectorz.com Movie Database Digital movie files

8.2.4 Print screen USED IN TASK : Printing

Movie Collector provides a variety of controls for printing the contents of your collection. For a quick step-by-step description on how to print, see Printing.

The print controls are separated into a General and a Template tab. The layout of the printed report is defined by a "print template". The template defines how the printout should look.

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movies to print · All movies: for printing the entire list of movies in the database · Selected movies: print only the movies that have been selected in the main screen list. Note that you can use or +click so make a selection of several movies in the main screen.

List Type · Single Long List: Create a print out with no forced page breaks. This can be useful if you are having trouble with the Paged List option. · Paged List: Insert page breaks and define how many entries are on each page. · Items per Page: a number which controls when a page break is inserted in the print out. If you have print out pages and some are mostly empty, adjust the Items per Page number. Use a lower value so that forced page breaks are occurring near or before the end of the printed page.

Sort Order · Custom setting: lets you define a customized sort order specifically for printing. Press the Edit button to bring up Sort field selection screen to indicate which sort fields to use.

· Use main screen setting: to apply the sort order you are already using to display your collection in the main screen. · Note: sort fields with a descending sort order are preceded by a ~ symbol.

Print Preview · Opens the Print Preview screen that shows how your printout will look. In the Print Preview screen, use the toolbar at the top to navigate through the pages, zoom in or out, print the document or return to the Print screen with the Close button. Note that Print Preview shows a couple of pages, not the entire document. This is for performance reasons.

Page Setup · Opens the Page Setup screen where you can define which paper and margins should be used.

Printer Setup · Opens the Printer Setup screen where you can define which printer to use as well as most printer specifics.

Header & Footer · Defines text at the top and the bottom of each printed page. This section supports using HTML encoding. Here is a sample: ·

Page #page · - bolds the text located within the tags · - orients the text in the middle of the page · #page - inserts the page number

Templates You can print a simple list of items using the Customize Template setting, or use more complex predefined layouts using Select from list. The Custom List Template feature lets you print a simple list of your items, with configurable fields. · Report Title: The title of the print out as it appears at the top of the paper when printing. · Font: The font style of the characters used · Size: The character size · Color: The color of the printed text · Include report creation date : Will at the right top of the first page print the current date and time.

· List Layout: creates a print similar to a spreadsheet. · Thumbnail Layout: print out of movies represented by the front movie covers. The number of columns can be adjusted, along with background thumbnail color. Also a description can be added.

· Fields: Lets you define which (data) fields you wish to print. Only available if the List layout option is chosen. · Enable Row shading: when using the List layout, checking Row shading will make the individual lines standout by alternating dark/light shading in each row. Include front cover thumbnail : when printing in list layout, this will include a miniature cover image in the left most columns of the print.

Pro version only · Save to list: can be used to save your customized template. · Select from list: lets you choose print templates that are either saved (see above) or downloaded from our website.

It is possible to create new templates yourself or edit existing ones. For more information about this, visit the Template Tutorial on the Collectorz.com website.

Related Topics Printing Data field meanings Sort field selection screen Column field selection screen XSL Templates

8.2.5 Filter screen USED IN TASK : Searching with a filter

With a filter you can find specific movies in your collection that fulfill certain criteria. The rest of the database is hidden while the filter is active. For a quick step-by-step description of setting up a filter, and a condition, see Searching with a Filter. This section is provides a full description of the functionality in this screen, as well as a few filter examples.

Open the Set Filter screen through menu Search | Filter | Create/Modify filter(s) The left lists the conditions, where as the right pane will list your saved filters.

Click to view small size image In plain English this means that the filter checks for :

· all movies that have as format filled DVD (format equals DVD) · for which the title should contain either "Star Trek", OR "Star Wars", or the movie is defined as genre "Sci-FI", or any combination of these three separate grouped conditions.

Icons used on the set filter screen Filter naming and saving presets To add and save a new filter.

To rename a selected filter.

To remove a selected filter.

To duplicate a selected filter.

Adding, grouping and removing conditions of filters To add a condition (filtering rule) for the currently selected filter preset. Adding is done within the selected branch in the nesting of the conditions. To remove the selected condition (filter rule) for a selected filter.

To alter the nature of your condition into the NOT counterpart. For example setting a single condition to filter "format equals DVD" would filter out all movies that have the value "DVD" in their format field. Adding a NOT operator before this condition will filter all movies that do NOT have the value DVD as format. Selecting a set of conditions using control + click allows you to NOT a group as whole. Groups a number of selected conditions. For selecting more than one condition, use the Windows generic method of pressing and holding either the control or the shift key on your keyboard while clicking individual conditions. Grouped conditions show in the filter screen as indented, colored lines grouped by [ .... ] brackets.In the screen below, love and care belong to one group, while tender is one level up.

When you start making a filter, note that · the field column allows you to make a condition on a field as found on the edit movie screen · comparison allows for a list of ways to make the condition compare, and · value should contain the value that needs to be checked for. · Case sensitive means you want to filter to take note of upper case and lower case text you may have entered as search value

If a field is a lookup list item, the value can be selected by using a drop down in the value column, or typed (which is auto-completed while you type). Start typing and the list will select the entry that matches as you type.

Combining conditions using AND / OR : some examples If you use multiple fields for the filter, you have to specify how the conditions should be combined. · Combining conditions is done with the logical AND and OR. · Choose AND if you want to see all items that satisfy the (group of) conditions on both sides of the AND, choose OR if you want to see all database items that satisfy one or more of those conditions. Note that the logical OR means that (in this example) one or two of the conditions in the indented branch has to be true. Changing an AND to an OR (or the other way around) can be done by clicking the AND / OR word between two conditions. · When two conditions are linked using AND, any following condition automatically is also used with AND. If you would like to OR instead, first group the two first conditions (see the icons section above).

Some filter examples Example 1. To group conditions, use +click to select two or more conditions, and click

the grouping icon . Grouping will allow you to combine AND and OR conditions.

Example 2. As a final example, the grouping was used on a subset of the combined conditions

to make a NOT group . Use the explanation of the previous example to evaluate which sort of movie will now fulfill the conditions.

Using the saved filters from the main screen From the main screen, you can quickly enable and disable filters

Use the funnel icon ., which toggles a currently selected filter on or off. Which filter is currently

selected can be seen by using the drop down next to the icon. It will have a green check in front of the selected filter :

Notes · There is one exceptional field called [any field] which can only be used in combination with the comparison contains. It will check any of the fields to contain the text you enter in the value column. · The value field supports searching with wildcards.

Related Topics Find a movie in your database Creating a Search Filter Searching with wildcards Making Backups

8.2.6 Column field selection screen USED IN TASKS : Customizing Movie Collector, Exporting to HTML and Export to iPod

To select which fields should be displayed in the main screen, exported or printed you will have to use the Column Field Selection screen. The screen can be invoked from different places within Movie Collector. Because the fields you prefer to use for your Ipod-export are not necessarily the same as the ones you would like to print, you can name and save such field selections and the order in which they appear.

This list of presets will be stored, and visible from every column field selection screen in Movie Collector.

For example : In the List view on the main screen, you can use the menu View | Columns | Choose columns to adjust which columns you would like to see and in what order on the main screen. The screen you will see appear will look like this :

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On the left is the list of available data fields to select from.

The following concerns the Pro version only. On the right you will see your saved column field selections.

· Just click on the add button to start defining a new saved field set, and after naming it in the right pane, check the fields you would like to be included for that set from the left pane. Alternatively, simply start checking / unchecking fields for an already selected set. These changes then take effect immediately without having to use a separate "save" action. Use the 'drag and drop' method on the fields in the left pane or the presets in the right pane to rearrange the order in

which you would like to have the fields shown.

Icons on the column field selection screen Filter naming and saving presets To add and save a new column field selection set.

To duplicate a selected set. Convenient if the selected fields to be assigned of a next set match the ones for an existing preset, so that only a few minor modifications will have to be made to complete the duplicate To rename a selected preset.

To remove a selected preset.

Basically this same screen comes up at different parts of Movie Collector, where ever column fields can be selected.

In the export to | text screen, using the fields button will show the screen like this :

It is the same screen with the same functionality of saving field selection settings. When using · an export to html · an export to iPod and · the print screen you will see the bar appear similarly

Note : presets carry over to every part of Movie Collector where the column field selection screen can be invoked from.

Related Topics Browsing your database Exporting data to HTML Exporting data to text format Exporting to PDA/iPod/XML Printing Making Backups

8.2.7 Sort field selection screen USED IN TASKS : Customizing Movie Collector, Exporting to text, Exporting to HTML, Re assigning the index values and Printing

Like the column field selection screen, the sort field selection screen also appears from different parts of Movie Collector. Its function is to let you define the fields on which to sort. This can be on the main screen, when printing or exporting).

Tip : To sort on a single field, you can click on the column header of that field in the List view. If you want to sort on multiple fields however (sorting on one field, and if more than one movie exists for that field start sorting on a second), you need to use the Sort Field Selection screen.

From the main screen you can use menu View | Sort Order | Choose Sort Fields to go to the following screen:

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On the left is the list of available data fields to select from for each saved field set..

The following concerns the Pro version only. On the right are your saved field sets.

· Just click on the add field set button to start defining a new saved field set, and after naming it in the right pane, check the fields you would like to be included for that saved set from the left pane. Alternatively, simply start checking / unchecking fields for an already selected saved field set. These changes take effect immediately without having to use a separate "save" action. Use the drag and drop method on the fields in the left pane or the saved field sets in the right pane to rearrange the order in which you would like to have the fields and saved sets shown. You can control ascending/descending by clicking the little a-z symbol between the checkbox and the field name.

Icons on the sort field selection screen Filter naming and saving presets To add and save a new field set.

To duplicate a selected saved field set. Convenient if the selected fields to be assigned of a next saved set match the ones for an existing saved set closely, so that only a few modifications will have to be made to complete the duplicate To rename a selected saved field set..

To remove a selected saved field set.

You can control Ascending/Descending by clicking the little A-Z symbol between the checkbox and the field name.

Basically this same screen comes up at different parts of Movie Collector, where ever column fields can be selected and preset stored from

The sort field selection screen available from the Print Screen. When using · an Export to Text · an Export to HTML and · the Re-assigning of the Index Value you will see the bar appear similarly

Re indexing your database (using Tools | Maintenance | Re-assign Index Fields) can also be done according to a certain sort field selection. This re indexing can not be reversed, so be careful when using this option.

Note: these presets carry over to every part of Movie Collector where the sort field selection screen can be invoked from.

Related Topics Browsing your database Exporting data to HTML Exporting data to text format Exporting to PDA/iPod/XML Printing

8.2.8 Folder field selection screen USED IN TASK : Browsing your database

On the folder view selection screen, you can define ways to have your collection grouped. Grouping is possible on so called lookup list items, which are fields that share their value across database entries. An example of such a field would be the 'Genre' field, which can be selected from the same array of values for every movie.

To access the folder field selection, use the menu View | Folders | Choose folder fields You will see the following screen appear :

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On the left is the list of available data fields to select from for each saved field set.

What follows concerns the Pro version only. On the right are your saved field sets, by which your movies will be grouped.

· Simply click on the add field set button to start defining a new field set, and after naming it in the right pane, check the fields you would like to be included for that saved set from the left pane. Alternatively, simply start checking / unchecking fields for an already selected and existing saved field set. These changes take effect immediately without having to use a separate "save" action. Use the drag and drop method on the fields in the left pane or the saved field sets in the right pane to rearrange the order in which you would like to have the fields and saved field sets shown.

Icons on the folder field selection screen Filter naming and saving presets

To add and save a new field set

To duplicate a selected saved field set. Convenient if the selected fields to be assigned for a next saved field set match the ones for an existing saved set closely, so that only a few modifications will have to be made to complete the duplication To rename a selected saved field set.

To remove a selected saved field set.

Once a folder view is activated, an alternative way to invoke an other folder view is to click in the area where (here) 'Genre' is mentioned from the main screen.

Note : Grouping can be nested, meaning grouping can take place within a group. For example, for each genre you can further group on for example the format of the movie.

Related Topics Browsing your database Managing lookup lists Column field selection screen Sort field selection screen

8.2.9 Manage Loans screen USED IN TASK : Loaning movies

The Manage Loans screen manages all outstanding and previous loans. You can loan and return movies from there, search the loans, and print out the list of loans. It can be

accessed through the toolbar icon or the menu Loans | Manage Loans. The following dialog will appear:

Click to view small size image This displays a list of the loans of the movies in your database.

Loan Settings Through menu Loans | Loan Settings the default loan period can be adjusted. This is the number of days after which a loaned movie becomes overdue.

Icons on the manage loans screen Edit the loan details of a selected loaned movie

Return a movie

Removes the loan entry for a movie. This effectively means the movie was not loaned out.

Displays the entire loan history

Lists all movies that are currently loaned out

Lists the movies that are overdue

The Quick Search function for loans. Type a text in the edit box to search the list of loans. Click the funnel icon to turn the search filter on or off. The statusbar at the bottom shows which filter is active, if any.

Print out a simple list of the information currently shown in the loan manager screen.

Open the manual regarding the manage loans screen.

Close the manage loans screen.

You can use the Collectorz.com barcode scanner to loan or return movies in this screen. When you scan a barcode, the program checks if it is currently loaned or not. There are several possibilities: · It is not loaned out: The Loan Game screen is opened to register the loan. · It is loaned out: The movie is returned and the return date is set to today. · The movie cannot be found: A message informs you of this. · There are multiple copies of the same barcode in the database: the barcode is used as a filter so that you can manually select which action to take.

Related Topics Loaning movies Barcode scanning Lookup lists

8.2.10 Box Set screen USED IN TASK : Adding multi-disc DVDs

Open the Box Set screen using the Box Set button on the toolbar. This opens the Edit Lookup Lists screen with the Box Set list selected.

Select one of the titles and click on the Edit Lookup Item button or double click the title. This opens the Edit Box Set screen.

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Here you can enter a number of fields describing the box set. Use the second tab called Covers, to add a front and back cover of the box set. These will show in the details view of the main screen

Related Topics Adding box sets

Editing multiple movies

8.2.11 Field Defaults screen USED IN TASK : Adding a movie

When adding a new movie to Movie Collector, a number of its fields can automatically be set to a default value. This is useful if the field always has the same value and you do not want to enter it manually every time (e.g. personal fields like the Owner field).

Open this screen through menu Tools | Field Defaults:

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· If you add a movie automatically the data field values provided by the online db may override the ones set in this Field Default settings. This is true for fields: Genre, Game Release Year, Country, Format, Release Year, and Language. The personal fields will keep the field default settings you define in this screen. · Field default values are not directly added to the lists, only after a default value has actually been used upon adding a movie will this new value be added to the list. For example, defining a default value "new genre" for genre will not show up in the genre list in the edit movie screen until a movie was added for which this default value was actually used.

Related Topics Data field meanings Editing movies

8.2.12 Statistics screen USED IN TASK : Viewing collection statistics

This screen is available through menu Tools | Statistics. It provides summary information about movies in the database.

On the right side of the Statistics screen are numerical values related to the movie listing.

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The main portion of the screen is a graph. It displays histograms related to the data field specified. Only lookup lists can be displayed on the graph; you can select which field to display in the graph with the folder icon in the top-lefthand corner.

Icons on the statistics screen. To select what field you want to use to display a graph of

orders the x-axis entries by count.

order the x-axis entries by name.

prints out the current graph.

applies the filter set through the menu Search | Set Filter screen. The graph will then only consider entries that are permitted by the search filter.

Related Topics View collection statistics Filter screen

Lookup list item Browsing your database

8.2.13 Text export screen USED IN TASK : Exporting to text

A text export is the simplest form of exporting the information in your database. Once the export file is created it can be viewed in Notepad or any other word processor type application.The Export to Text function writes Movie Collector data to an ASCII (standard text) file, one item per line, enclosing all fields with a text qualifier character and separating the fields with a delimiter character.

Open the Export to Text screen through menu File | Export to | Text.

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The text export can be read by spreadsheet programs like Microsoft Excel. This is done by using the file extension .csv (Comma Separated Values). Settings Explanation Destination File To specify the exported file name and path All movies or To set whether to export the entire collection or to export only the records Selected movies that are currently selected in the main screen. Note that you can select multiple items using either shift+click or control+click. Sort Order Allows you to set the sort order in which the records should be exported. · Choose Custom setting for exporting if you want to define a customized sort order specifically for exporting. Press the Edit button to bring up Sort field selection screen to indicate which sort fields and preset to use. · Choose Use main screen setting to apply the sort order you are already using to display your collection in the main screen. Delimiter is the character that will be exported between the fields (sometime also called the field separator). Text Qualifier is the character that encloses all fields in the export Line Break is used for keeping records on one line; otherwise line breaks would cause Replacement the item to continue on the next line, which usually is not what you want in ASCII exporting.

Include Field Names Check the checkbox to make Movie Collector include an extra first row in on First Row the export file that holds the field names. A number of applications (like Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access) can use this information. Buttons Export Will perform the text export, using the settings of this screen. Cancel Will cancel the export, no file will be created Fields Lets you choose which fields / columns to export. Help Will open this manual section. The preview pane section gives a sample of what the export will look like.

Related Topics Exporting data to text format Data field meanings Sort field selection screen Column field selection screen

8.2.14 HTML export screen Note: this feature is not available in the Standard edition.

HTML exporting allows you to create a website that displays your collection in a web browser.

There are two kinds of pages: index pages that show an overview of your collection, and details pages that show detailed content for one movie. These pages are created with the HTML language using two templates: one for the index, and one for the details pages. For a quick step-by-step on how to generate an HTML export, see the html export screen explanation .

Open the HTML export screen through the menu File | Export to | HTML.

General Tab The Export to HTML feature uses XSL templates to define the layout and look of the exported HTML pages. For the Index page, you can export a simple list of items using the Custom List Template setting, or use other list layouts by Selecting a Template from the list

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Movies to export The HTML export can be done for the entire list of movies or a partial list. For a partial list, the movies first need to be selected in the List view of the main screen. To select individual movies, click on them while holding the CTRL key. If the List view has a partial list, you can also use Edit | Select All.

List Type There are three types of index page layouts. · Single Long List: Create one index page for the entire list.

· Paged by First Letter of Title: Create multiple index pages, one for each letter of the alphabet:

· Paged List: Create multiple index pages. The Items per Page number determines show many movies are listed on each index page. For Paged Listing, navigation links will be added to the top of each index page. The navigation can be Alphabetical which gives an index based on how the list is sorted. For example if sorted by title, it will give a range of which titles appear on which page, such as:

There is also navigation by Page Numbers, which displays a list of index pages by page number, such as:

Destination Here the export directory is chosen, along with the index file name. All the HTML files, stylesheets and images are placed there. There is the option to Overwrite existing Detail pages and image files each time the export is done. If unchecked, only new pages will be made and thus updating the website will be faster.

Sort Order The Sort Order setting allows you to set the sort order in which the records should be printed. Choose 'Custom setting for printing' if you want to define a customized sort order specifically for printing. Press the 'Edit' button to bring up Sort field selection screen to indicate which sort field preset to use. Choose 'Use main screen setting' to apply the sort order you are already using to display your collection in the main screen. There is the option at the bottom that once the export is done, the results can be opened in a web browser. This is useful to check if the result is what you expected. Note: sort fields with a descending sort order are preceded by a ~ symbol.

Index Template tab

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Customize Template

The Custom List Template feature lets you export a simple list of your items, with a configurable field set. Use the 'Edit' button to change the template settings. You can choose the fields that appear as columns in the list, Column field selection screen. If you want to keep this layout for later use, click on Save in Template List button and the generated template will appear in the Select Template list with the Description you entered. · Report Title - specify the title of the index page. · Font - adjust the character style · Size - control the character size · Include report creation date - Will on the first page print the current date and time. · Text and background color - Use the [...] buttons to change these properties. · Thumbnail size - Choose the size of the images exported to the HTML folder.

· List Layout - creates a layout similar to a spreadsheet. Row shading can be added along with small thumbnail images. The data fields included are controlled through the Fields button. · Thumbnail Layout - shows movies by their front movie covers. The number of columns can be adjusted, along with background thumbnail color. Also a description can be added.

Select from list Movie Collector comes with a number of ready to use list templates for the Index page. You can select one of the included templates by choosing the "Select Template" setting and then selecting a template from the drop down list. The generated HTML index page is called index.html and is located in the destination folder. If the template uses a CSS stylesheet it will be copied there as well. Read more about XSL Templates.

Details Template tab

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Create detail pages: activate the creation of detail pages. One detail page is generated for every exported movie. Select the template you want to use for the detail pages dropdown box. This template describes the layout of the HTML page, and which fields are shown. The name of the generated page is [id].html, where [id] is the value of the ID field of the movie. The pages are located in the details subfolder of the destination folder.

Copy images to destination folder: Place the cover images used by the exported webpages in the images subfolder of the export destination. This is useful if you want to upload the website to a internet server, without breaking the links to the images. If you choose yes, then the addressing with be relative. If not chosen, then the addressing includes the full file path on the computer you are on.

Scale down images larger than: Exported images sizes can be controlled here. This is useful if you have very larger images on your system which would be too slow if they are viewed over the internet.

More user defined templates can be found in our online Template Gallery. It is also possible to create new templates or edit existing ones. For more information about this, visit the Template Tutorial on the Collectorz.com website.

Related Topics Exporting data to HTML Data field meanings XSL Templates Sort field selection screen

Column field selection screen

8.2.15 Options screen The Options screen is accessible through menu Tools | Options. It provides a variety of general controls for Movie Collector.

General tab

Click to view small size image · Ask for confirmation... · when removing items: Display a Yes/No confirmation screen when you remove a movie from the database. This is useful to prevent accidental deletions. · when cancelling in data entry screens: Display a Yes/No confirmation screen when you cancel the Edit movie screen. This is useful to prevent accidental discarding of editing you have done.

· Show Names as "Last Name, First Name": Controls the display for Lookup List names within Movie Collector. The software displays the last name first if it is provided, e.g. "Pacino, Al". If this option is disabled, it displays as "Al Pacino".

· Show "Collection Status" Indicator in List: Display a small icon in the left-most column in the list view that indicates the value of the Collection Status field.

· Show Cast sorted on Actor name: In the Details View, change the order of the cast to be alphabetical instead of the order defined in the Edit Movie screen.

· Show Counter in tree folders: When using a folder view, this will show in brackets the number of

movies for each folder

· Auto Increment Index: when a movie is added to Movie Collector an Index value is assigned. This feature increments the Index value for each movieadded.

· Next Index: controls which is the Index value next assigned to a movie added. This can be useful if you are grouping movies by index and want to assign a range of numbers to a specific group.

· User Files Folder: Your saved field and folder sets and favorites will be stored in this folder. See the Making backups section for an explanation of which files are meant by this.

· User Templates Folder: XSL templates can be downloaded from our website. Movie Collector will look inside this folder for templates. It is not overwritten when a new version of Movie Collector is installed.

· Time Format: Set the display layout of the Running Time field.

· Activate Flic scanner when program starts: If you have a Flic/Collectorz.com laser barcode scanner, activate it immediately when the program starts. That way you will not have to use the Tools | Initialize Flic scanner menu to start using the laser scanner.

Check for Update tab

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· Automatically Check for Update: Set the frequency of automatic checking with the Collectorz. com webserver for a newer version of Movie Collector. When enabled, this check is always performed at program startup. See Updating Movie Collector

· Backup Folder: You can set the folder where you would like Movie Collector to store the backup database. The default value is My Documents\Movie Collector\backup.

· Proxy Info: Set the settings for your proxy server, if you need one to connect to the internet.

Notes: · This function only copies the database itself, not cover art files. · This function can only write to writeable drives like hard disks or USB sticks. For CD-Rom backups you need special backup software like Nero BackItUp

Backup tab

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· Automatically backup collection: When Movie Collector starts up it will create a copy of the active database file and place it in the Backup folder. The format of the file name is "Backup of .mvc".

Notes 1. This function only copies the database itself, not cover art files. 2. This function can only write to writeable drives like hard disks or USB sticks. For CD-Rom backups you need special backup software like Nero BackItUp

Images tab

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· Default Folder for Image Files: When cover images are downloaded from the info sources, this is the folder where they are stored. The default value is My Documents\Movie Collector \Images.

· Automatically check/update image file paths: If this control is turned on, Movie Collector will try to fix the links to image files when it starts up. This means it will search your Default Folder for Image Files specified above to see if it can find the filenames. This is useful if you access the same database from multiple computers.

· Default Folder for Thumbnail Files: Location of thumbnail files. They can be automatically generated from the original image files. The default value is My Documents\Movie Collector \Thumbnails.

· Multi-threaded Thumbnail Viewer: The main screen can be set to display cover images of your collection via menu View | Images. The performance of this view can be enhanced with this option. If there are problems with the Image view, try turning this off.

· Image Editing program: The program used for editing images (link to the executable, *.exe). This option connects with the 'Edit' button in the Edit Movie screen, on the Pictures tab. A great program for image editing is Paint Shop Pro.

· Image Scanner: Choose the correct loaded driver to work with your scanner. This is useful if you want to manually scan your covers.

· Scale down scanned images if height exceeds: Sometimes the image files you've scanned yourself can be quite large. This option lets you set a maximum height to reduce the file size and improve the program speed.

Capitalization tab

Click to view small size image In Movie Collector, there are a few areas where there is a Capitalization button to capitalize

content . Through this option screen you can control how the capitalization is performed.

The different capitalization options. There are radio buttons for choosing how you would like text to be capitalized in the auto capitalization method area (left top). Most are again self explanatory. Where the options have a reference to the exceptions, the list on the right will be used to deviate from the rule.

For example, the option checked, First Letter of Each Word With Exceptions will capitalize every word found in a title (separated by the space), except if that word exists in the user configurable list shown in the list of exceptions on the right.

This table will list a brief explanation of those options. UPPER CASE When set, all letters of every word of a title will be converted (if necessary) to an upper case character. lower case When set, all letters of every word of a title will be converted (if necessary) to a lower case character

First letter only Will convert the first letter of a title to upper case. First letter only with Will convert as the previous option, unless an exception is applicable Exceptions to the title First Letter Of Each Word Will convert every first character of each word in the title. First Letter Of Each Word Will convert as the previous option, unless an exception applies to with Exceptions the title

AutoCap Movie Titles when adding movies by Searching Info Sources: This option will apply the capitalization rules when you add movies using the Add Movies Automatically.

AutoCap Movie Titles as you type: This option will apply the capitalization rules as you type data manually into the Add/Edit screens.

Managing exceptions.

The add exception button brings up a screen listing words that you may want to exclude from the capitalization when done. Select a word, click the edit icon and the Edit Phrase screen will appear. There is the option to 'Uppercase the first letter when Title starts with this phrase'.

The other buttons:

edit a selected capitalization exception

remove a selected capitalization exception

move a a selected capitalization exception up

move a a selected capitalization exception down.

Title sort tab

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Here you can define, in what way a title that is entered into your collection needs to be split up for it to get sorted properly.

Consider a title such as "The Matrix". If you sort on movie title, you probably prefer it to show up under the "M" of "Matrix" rather than the "T". For this, Movie Collector will have to define the "Title sort" field.

· Every word you see defined here, followed by an [enter], will be used to create Sort Titles from when movies are added. This holds for movies added using the Add Movies Automatically screen as well as when manually adding movies.. If a movie starts with any of the words set in this pane, it will be split automatically into the "Sort title" and an article part which is not recorded. This is making sorting easier and customizable. · On the edit screen you will also find an icon to create the sort title directly :

Media Center tab

See also the section : Using the Media Center viewer

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On this tab you can define, what settings should be used to view your collection under Windows Media Center. These settings will only influence your view when using a Vista Media Center PC, not on an XP Media Center computer. Of course on both this will require Media Center to be installed on your computer.

· Starting page: Will under Windows Vista determine what the start page will look like when entering the Media Center view. When using Media Center for XP this option is not available. See the section on exporting to Windows Media Center for more information.

· Sort Order for MCE data: Will determine the sort order of the movies as they can be viewed in Media Center. You can use the main screen sort settings, or choose a custom setting. The Edit button will bring up the sort field selection screen, so you can use either a saved sort field set or create a new one.

· Filter MCE Data: Will allow you to view only a certain part of your collection in Windows Media Center. The movies shown fulfill the set filter criteria. · Never filter: will not filter the collection, so all movies will be shown when viewing the collection in Media Center · Custom setting for Media Center: will allow you to select a pre defined filter or make a new one. Using the Edit button, the set filter screen will come up. · Use main screen settings: As with sorting, you can also choose the filter currently active in the main screen.

· Generate Media Center XML at save: Will save the file required for viewing your movies in Media Center with every active save of the collection in Movie Collector as well as with starting Media Center directly. So using the menu File | Save as well as the menu Tools | Start Media Center will generate the XML file. Note that for large databases this can slow down saving the database.

· Disable sounds: Will under Media Center disable the control sounds generally made when using the Media Center remote or keyboard. · Themes: Choose a theme you would like the Media Center viewer to have.

Related Topics List management sorting properly Updating Movie Collector Making backups of your data Adding Images manually Barcode scanning

8.2.16 Search Settings screen This screen is for controlling options related to adding movies automatically. Open this screen with the 'Settings' button in the Add Movies Automatically screen.

Main Tab Proxy Settings This needs to be filled in if your computer is behind a proxy server. Proxy Servers are often found in an office environment or large computer network. If you are using Movie Collector at home, there is a good chance that no information needs to be entered here.

Automatically close Normally, the Add movies screens stays open after adding the last item to the screen when collection, which allows you to add new searches immediately. In some cases, it Search Queue is may be preferable to have the screen close automatically when the search empty queue is empty, e.g. if you are adding your movies one by one.

Edit Items after AddThis opens the Edit Movie screen after a movie has been added to the to Collection database. This only works if you are adding one movie at a time.

Download price Will include price information if found in the online database. data Play sound after Movie Collector will create a sound when a barcode is successfully scanned. scanning barcode This is useful because sometimes when scanning barcodes, the laser is not able to read the code on the first pass.

Download front Check this option if you want front covers downloaded. cover if available Download back Check this option if you want back covers downloaded. cover if available

Details Tab · Maximum Size of Cast and Crew: Set the number of crew members downloaded from the database. For example, if you want to increase the number of actors listed, increase the value here. · Do not retrieve character names: For cast info: only retrieves the name of the actors, not the role they played in the movie.

Related Topics: Add Movies Automatically

8.3 DVD / CD carousels

Using a DVD Carousel

This topic applies if you have a Centurion CD/DVD carousel, a Ziotek CD/DVD Carousel (Plus) or a DACAL CD Library device. Movie Collector supports the automatic recognition of the carousels and can eject the specific disc from within the program. These sections will describe how to use such carousels.

Using CenturionCD carousels with Game Using Ziotek and Dacal carousels with Game Collector. Collector.

8.3.1 CenturionCD carousels

When you own a CenturionCD carousel, you can use Movie Collector to control it and link it to the movies you entered in you own Movie Collector database. If you are interested to learn what the carousel can do, and where to order, please check our website. To do so, first make sure you have the software installed that came with the carousel, called MediaTRACKER lite / standard. For more information about this software we refer you to the manual and installation disc that came with the carousel, and the help file of MediaTRACKER. This section will describe the way Movie Collector can be used in combination with the carousel.

Setting up the carousel and checking in movies. Once you have added movies to your collection, it is time to store the discs into your Centurion carousel.

Check that MediaTRACKER is running, as visible by the icon in the tray (Next to your windows clock). Slide a disc into the carousel and Movie Collector will respond by providing a dialog that allows you to link a movie in your collection to the disc you just inserted.

· The Movie name will be pre-filled, using either the currently selected movie in the main screen list or using the title of the movie you may be currently editing on the edit screen. · The disc value can be selected if the movie you are inserting is one of a multi-disc movie. · If you have used MediaTRACKER software to already fill the carousel prior to using Movie Collector, use the 'Volume name' drop down to select the matching volume name of the disc you used in MediaTRACKER. If MediaTRACKER was not used to set up volume names yet, a volume name will be created in the background automatically matching the selected movie name.

Viewing storage device and slot information.

Open the Edit Movie screen for the movie you want to manage, and select the 'Episodes & Features' tab. The following Storage section should be present on each of the disc tabs :

· Initially, you will see the storage device listed as an Centurion ID, e.g. 'CCD Organizer (000f7241)'. To change it to a more meaningful name like "Centurion" (as done here), use the manage lookup list screen and change the Display Name of the carousel. The Device ID will remain fixed, because it is needed to identify the device. · The slot name will correspond to a combination of field values : "Movie name - disc number" · The eject button will eject the disc. This can also be done directly from the main screen, using the storage toolbar or by right clicking a movie in the main screen list.

Ejecting a disk To eject a disk, use one of the following methods: Note: The Eject function is only enabled if the Storage Device field has been filled (with an actual Carousel device), and the Slot field is filled. · In the Edit movie screen, Episodes & Features tab: press the Eject button to the right of the Slot field. · On the main screen, press the Eject button on the toolbar. If the Eject button is not visible, right-click on the toolbar are and enabled the 'Storage' checkbox. · On the main screen, select a movie in list view, right-click on it, and select Eject from the popup menu.

A note on ejecting DVDs : when a disc is ejected from the carousel, Movie Collector will wait until the disc is actually lifted off the carrying arm before you can access Movie Collector again. The carousel has a way to detect whether or not the disc was taken off, and does not allow other database changes to be made while there is a disc on the arm yet. Either take the DVD off the arm, or re-insert it if you wish to continue working.

Troubleshooting · If Movie Collector does not prompt you with the check-in screen when you insert a disc, verify that MediaTRACKER is installed and running. (see the top of this page). If not, please download it from the Collectorz.com download page (at the bottom of the page). · Also make sure Movie Collector is the program in the foreground of your monitor, being the active (selected) program. When Movie Collector is minimized to the taskbar or not selected the check-in screen will not appear until it is brought to the foreground.

There are two very important notes regarding the MediaTracker software · If you delete MediaTRACKER, or remove components of the software, Movie Collector may not be able to link to the assigned slots in the carousel. · Only one of the Collectorz.com programs can access the Carousel at any given time. So running Game- as well as Music Collector will not allow you to insert Games and (audio) CDs mixed.

Related Topics Storing Physical Movies Data field meanings Edit Movie screen Ziotek and Dacal carousels

8.3.2 Ziotek and Dacal carousels

Using a Ziotek / Dacal carousel, you can use Movie Collector to keep track of where they are stored inside the carousel.

Setting up the carousel information Setting up the carousel information · Enter your movies into Movie Collector. · Open the Edit Movie screen for the disc you want to manage, and select the Episodes & Features tab. · The following Storage section should be present on each of the disc tabs :

· Open the Storage Device drop down field to select your device. Initially, you will see it listed as a number like '12345'. This is the default ID provided by Movie Collector. To change it to a more meaningful name like "My Carousel", use the manage lookup list screen and change the Display Name of the carousel. The Device ID will remain fixed, because it is needed to identify the device. · Enter the slot position of the disk in the Slot field. To get the next available slot, use the 'Find Available Slot' button. This will search your collection for used slot numbers, starting from 1, for the lowest empty / available slot. It only searches in your collection - not the carousel itself. So be sure you have entered all the filled slots into Movie Collector before using this function. You can enter a number like 1, 8, or 99 to indicate the slot position.

If you have more than one carousel, you can connect them all to your system and Movie Collector will automatically detect them and assign each one a unique Device ID.

Ejecting a disk

To eject a disk, use one of the following methods:

· In the Edit movie screen, Episodes & Features tab: press the Eject button to the right of the Slot field. · On the main screen, press the Eject button on the toolbar. If the Eject button is not visible, right-click on the toolbar are and enable the 'Storage' toolbar. · On the main screen, select a movie in list view, right-click on it, and select Eject from the popup menu. Note: The Eject function is only enabled if the Storage Device field has been filled (with an actual Carousel device), and the Slot field is filled.

Troubleshooting If the Eject button still is not active, please check that you have the file USBCDDLL.dll installed in your Movie Collector folder. If not, please download it from the Collectorz.com download page (at the bottom of the page).

Related Topics Storing Physical Movies Data field meanings Edit Movie screen

8.4 Multi-user support and read-only mode

Movie Collector is network-enabled. This means multiple people can open the same database. However only one person can make changes to it (called writable mode). All others will have the database open in read-only mode, allowing them to view the movie details only.

To share a database, you should place it in a shared folder on a computer in your network. Make sure that all computers and users have sufficient rights to access this shared folder. Using the database in this way requires every user accessing the database to have a separate license.

When opening a database that another user is working on already, a notification will indicate that you may open the database, but cannot edit it. Your toolbar and menus will be adjusted to ensure that no actions can be performed that would change the data. When you open another database in writable mode, the toolbar and menus will automatically switch back to enable editing again.

You can force Movie Collector to always open in read-only mode, regardless of whether the database is already open. See Forcing read-only mode for more info.

Note 1: The trial edition of Movie Collector does not support read-only mode. If a database is already opened by another user, it cannot be opened by the trial software used by an other user. Note 2: You may not open the same database twice with the same license key. This is a violation of the License Agreement.

If you encounter a situation where Movie Collector incorrectly prevents you from opening a database, see The lock file on how to fix this.

8.4.1 Notifications When you open a database that is already open by another user, you will receive a notification about this.

· The message below will be shown if you try to open a database which you are not allowed to edit because another user has already opened it for editing, and you are using a trial version of Movie Collector.

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· The following message will be shown if you try to open a database which you are not allowed to edit because another user has already opened it for editing.In this case, the editing rights are assigned to a person on the computer called 'Comp001'. In this case, you can browse the database, but make no changes to it.

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· If you open a database with the same license key already in use by another person, the message below will be displayed. Movie Collector will start up normally, but the database file will not be opened. Since this situation is not allowed according to the License Agreement, you will require additional licenses for the setup being used on your network.

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Related Topics Multi-user support Lock file

8.4.2 Forcing read-only mode You can configure Movie Collector to always run in read-only mode. This prevents accidental changes to the data, and is mostly useful for 'browsing' environments like in a library or store. When you enable this mode the lockfile will be ignored and any database you open will be set to read-only mode.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Run the installer with a /readonly parameter, e.g. moviecollectorsetup.exe /readonly. This writes a flag in the Registry during installation to enable read-only mode. 2. Manually set the key in the Registry. Using the Registry Editor, create a key called ReadOnly (DWORD) in the section HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Collectorz.com\movie\Settings\ called ReadOnly. Setting this registry key to 1 will force a read-only mode on that specific workstation.

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Delete the ReadOnly key to enable writable mode.

If you are not familiar with editing the Registry, we recommend that you do not use this method.

Note 1: You cannot change this setting from within Movie Collector itself, to prevent the person using it from turning it off. Note 2: You cannot set this flag for a specific database; only for a specific user account.

Related Topics Multi-user support and sharing a database The locking file

8.4.3 The lock file A locking mechanism prevents that more than one user can edit a database. This is done with a lock file. Each database has its own lock file. For a database named My Collection.mvc, the lock file is named My Collection.mvclck and is located in the same folder. The lock file is only present while at least one user has that database open.

The contents of this file is managed by Movie Collector; you should never manually edit it.

Troubleshooting · If you are getting a notification that another computer is already using the collection and you may only open it in read-only mode, and you are certain this is not the case (e.g. because you only have one computer), do the following to fix this: 1. Click OK on the notification and open the collection in read-only mode 2. Select Tools | Maintenance | Reset Lock File on the main menu. This will switch the collection to writeable mode.

· If the lock file has become corrupted in some way (e.g. because of a computer crash or disrupted network connection), do this: 1. Close Movie Collector on all computers that have access to the database. 2. Delete the lock file.

The above solutions will work also if you have copied the database from one computer to an other, while not having closed down Movie Collector on the first computer. You may have copied the database lock file that way as well, causing the second computer to think the database is in use still.

Related Topics Multi-user support and sharing a database Forcing read-only mode

8.5 Miscellaneous

This chapter has several reference topics.

An overview of the miscellaneous topics : Data field · An overview of all fields used on the tabs of the edit movie screen. meanings Lookup lists · A full explanation how these shared lists are used in Movie Collector · How to merge list values (if by accident for example 20008 was entered for some release year instead of 2008) · How such lists are related to the way Movie Collector sorts.

Sorting properly · Sorting on title, people's names and more · Correct seemingly out of place movies when sorting.

Folder views for · Group movies for a better overview grouping · Group movies within groups (grouping in grouping)

Barcode scanning · Reference and setup help on the barcode scanners that can be used with Movie Collector

Storing disks · About storing your disks and keeping track of where they are

Shortcut keys · A list of keyboard shortcuts you can use when working with Movie Collector

XSL Templates · What is a template, where is it used and how can you use it to customize views and prints.

8.5.1 Data field meanings In this section are the explanations for each of the data fields found in the Edit movie screen. They are grouped by the tab on which they appear. Fields marked with the green checkmark are fields that have corresponding fields in our Collectorz.com online movie database, and can be filled automatically when adding movies automatically.

Movie Title Title of the movie Title Caption that is sometimes added to a title, for example 'The Director's Cut'. Extension Title Sort Body of the movie title. This relates to sorting of movies. For example with the movie 'The Wizard of Oz', the title sort should contain 'Wizard of Oz'. See sorting properly. Original Foreign movies usually have a different title in their original language. For Title example, the original title for 'Curse of the Golden Flower' is 'Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia'. Format Physical media of the movie, for example DVD or VHS. Series Many movies are chapters of a story. If they are associated, this can be entered here. For example, the 'Star Wars' series. For TV series, enter the main name of the series (e.g. 'Friends'). Movie Date field for when a movie was released in theaters. Release Date Release Date field for when the edition you have was released in your region or perhaps Date when a movie was released on DVD or VHS. Genre Categories that describe the type of movie content Studio The movie studio(s) that created the movie. Collection Status of a movie in the database. The options are: Not In Collection, Wanted, In Status Collection, For Sale and On order. Use the 'Wanted' value to track movies you want to add to your collection but do not have yet. Running The length of the movie, in minutes. You can change how this value is displayed Time via Tools | Options. Index Number identifying the movie. The index value is automatically assigned when a movie is added to the database. It is an increasing numerical value. This can be useful for tracking physical movies. The next index value can be controlled through menu Tools | Options. All the index values can be re-assigned through menu Tools | Maintenance | Re-Assign Index fields. Quantity Number of copies of a movie. If you are regularly loaning movies, it is best to make a separate entry for each of the movies loaned out so you can loan them out individually. IMDb The identifying number that IMDb assigns to movies in its database. If you click on Number the Go button a web browser will open and show you the IMDb page for the movie with this number. IMDb The rating out of 10 that a movie has on IMDb. Rating Country The country in which the movie was primarily filmed. Language The main language of the movie. Audience What audiences is the movie suited for, for example PG (Parental Guidance) Rating Barcode The number encoded in the barcode of a movie. Color Whether the movie is in color or black & white. If it has sections in both, choose color.

Cast & Crew Cast Actors and the roles they played. Crew People involved in creating the movie. There are five possible jobs: Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematography and Musician. There are also two user-definable jobs that you can rename via Tools | Field Names

Episodes & Features For TV series and Special Editions you can enter episodes as well as bonus features: Title Title of the episode. Plot Description of the storyline of the episode. Storage This drop down list is in reference to using Movie Collector with disc carousels. This Device field identifies which carousel has the movie. Slot This data field is in reference to using Movie Collector with disc carousels. It stores the movie position in the carousel. You can enter a number like 1, 8, 99 to indicate the slot number. Standard Bonus features that are often included on DVDs Features Extra Bonus features for a DVD which are unique to it Features

Edition Packaging Type of package the movie is stored in. For example, the standard keep case. Box set Name of the box the movie belongs to, if applicable. For example, 'Star Wars Trilogy'. You can group on this field via menu View | Folders. Edition Description in case the movie is a special version, such as 'Widescreen Edition'. Distributor Company that distributes the DVD. Can be different from producing company. Chapters The number of chapters of a DVD movie Layers For DVDs: how information is encoded on the disk. See here for more info. Region Region(s) for which this movie is recorded. For example an Australian DVD (region 4) might not be playable on a DVD player for the United States (region 1). Extras If your edition came with extras, check the appropriate box(es). Manage the list in Edit Lookup list. Subtitles Language subtitles. Audio Tracks Audio format(s) that the audio recorded in. For example, Dolby Digital or DTS. Screen Ratio The aspect ratio of the recorded movie. The most important factor is whether the recording is fullscreen or widescreen.

Personal Purchase Date Date the movie was purchased Purchase Price Amount paid for movie. Prices are shown in the currency defined by the regional settings of your system. Current value Present value of a movie Store Where the movie was purchased from Condition Physical state of the media (e.g. 'new', 'scratched' etc). Owner Person who owns the movie Location Physical location of the media (e.g. 'Bookcase 1, shelf 3'). Seen it Has the movie been viewed? Viewing Date Date the movie was watched Seen Where Location where the movie was watched User Lookup 1 Unassigned field that be used in a manner you wish. It is for tracking information that does not fit in other data fields. Lookup fields are best used for data that has repeated values. You can rename this field via menu Tools | Field Names.

User Lookup 2 Second user-definable lookup field User Text 1 Unassigned field that be used in a manner you wish. It is for tracking information that does not fit in other data fields. Text fields are best for data that is normally unique for each movie, like Title. User Text 2 Second user-definable text field My Rating Your evaluation of the movie. It follows 5 star rating, with the possibility of half stars Tape Label Label of a tape that has a movie on it. This can be useful if there are multiple movies recorded on one tape. Starting Start time for this movie on a tape with multiple movies. Position Tape Speed Tape speed was the movie recorded at. Tags A list of personal tags you can use to describe the associations the movie has for you. Every line you enter will act as a lookup list value, which means you can use folder grouping on the tags field.

Covers Front Cover Picture of the front cover of the movie. See the options screen for more details on how images are stored. Back Cover Picture of the back cover of the movie.

Plot & Notes Plot Description of the storyline of the movie. Plot Language The language in which the Plot field is written. Notes Personal remarks about the movie.

Links Links to external files or websites. See Links for more info. Description Description of the link; will be shown in the Details View. URL The actual link; either a URL for an online link or the absolute filepath for a file on your local computer. By default a Collectorz.com Connect link is downloaded when retrieving information from the online Game database. Type Type of the link: movie, image or other. Only applies to local links.

Related Topics Editing movies Exporting data to text format Printing Exporting data to HTML Exporting to PDA/iPod/XML

8.5.2 Lookup lists Lookup lists are an important element of a Movie Collector database (see List Management.for a quick introduction).

They are very useful because: · It saves you a lot of typing: once a value has been entered in the list, you do not have to type it, you can just select it from the list. · All occurrences of the field value use exactly the same spelling and case, simply because they are stored in the database only once. This also ensures that grouping and filters work correctly: if a different spelling would be used for several occurrences of the same director, the movies of that director would be spread over several groups when grouping on director! · It saves disk-space and (computer) memory, for the same reason as mentioned above; all values are stored in the database

Lookup lists are a managed through menu Tools | Edit Lists. The following example screen is for Actor names.

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Using the folder icon you can access the different lookup list items of Movie Collector.

Sort names A lookup list value / name can be broken down into parts. For people such as they appear in the credits list : First Name, Last Name.

This is done using the Edit button . This brings up the Edit Credits screen:

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· Use the Generate buttons to try to automatically populate the First- and Last Name from the Display Name. The Generate buttons may not always work correctly if the name has a unique form or has multiple parts. · Once a name is broken down Movie Collector will sort by the Sort name. The Sort Name field shows how Movie Collector will treat a name if sorted alphabetically (see the section on Sorting properly). The Display Name field shows how a name will be displayed in Movie Collector. There is the option to display Lookup Lists by Display name or Sort Name, depending on the option 'Show Names as Last Name, First Name' in the Options screen. The Display Name cannot be empty. · Some of the lookup lists have extra data fields associated. For example, Actors have an URL field. This can be useful to link to the IMDB entry for an actor. For example the IMDB entry for Arnold Schwarzenegger is http://imdb.com/name/nm0000216/ . Depending on the selected template, the lookup items will appear in the Details view as clickable links which is convenient when you are viewing your database of movies.

Removing list items · Removing a lookup item is only possible if not one movie is referring to it any more, in other words the Used count shown in this screen is zero. The used count is a column viewable in the Edit lookup list screen, to the right of the columns shown in the above example. An alternative to removing an entry is to use the Merge feature (see below).

· You can also use the button to let Movie Collector automatically select all items that are not in use. Just use the Remove button afterwards to remove all selected items. The Auto Re-sort option indicates that the lookup list will be automatically resorted after editing a lookup item, so that the changed item is shown in the correct position.

Merging list items Over time, duplicate entries with similar (yet not identical) names may appear in the lookup lists. For example, different versions of a country (value) such as "U.S.A." and "USA". This can be fixed using the Merge feature. Merging means that multiple values are combined into one, and all movies referring to them are changed to refer to the remaining item. · To merge: select the (multiple) lookup items you want to merge into one (by using CTRL

+clicking), and then select the Merge button . The entry with the highest Used value will

remain while the others will be merged into it. · Alternatively, you can right-click on one of the selected items (selected using CTRL+clicking) and select Merge selected to from the context menu opening up upon the right click to manually choose which item should remain.

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Quick way to change lookup items A quick way to change which lookup items a movie uses, is by dragging & dropping on the main screen. For more information, see Folder View.

Related Topics: List management sorting properly Folder View XSL Templates

8.5.3 Sorting properly Sorting your movies is a task you will most likely do daily. This is why a specific reference section is devoted to sorting, and how it is done.

Sorting on title When sorting movies in the list view by title, you may see movies that seem out of place. · Let's start with an example movie: The Matrix. · You may see it sorted under T instead of M. Movie Collector can solve this, by breaking down a title into the Title sort part. You will find this field on the edit movie screen. If you fill Matrix into this field, Movie Collector will sort the movie using this field, so under the M. Of course Movie Collector has a setting where you can define, what starting words (articles) you would like to be handled this way. That way, when you add movies(automatically or manually) the Sort title field will automatically be filled. See title sort settings to control what already should be split automatically (topic : Title sort tab). See the image below, The Assassination of Jesse James is sorted under the A because the sort title field dictates this for this movie.

· If you already have movies in your collection that are not sorted properly, changing the articles will not affect the movie in your collection. As described above, you can type the Sort title directly, or use the button on the edit screen to fill the sort title field

Note: it is not necessary to enter the Title Sort for all movies: if left empty the Title value will be used instead for sorting. If the Title sort field IS filled, it will override the Title as sorting field.

Sorting on (people's) names (crew, actors etc) When sorting on names, make sure Movie Collector has the correct information on a person's first and last name. · First, check how the names you are seeing are listed. See the menu Tools | Options, where there is an option called Show names as "Last Name, First Name". If checked, the main screen (tabular list) will show names in this way.

· Second, as you can see above Amiel, Jon is followed by Andrei Zvyagintsev who is not listed with his last name first, nor is he sorted where you would expect him to be sorted (under the Z). To correct this, the easiest way is to edit the name directly from the edit movie screen. As you can see below, when clicking the edit button for Andrei, he is only known under a display name, not by a first- and last-name. Click the left Generate button and his first- and last-name will be filled in

correctly, and he will be sorted under the Z.

You can also use the menu Tools | Edit Lists to generate sortnames or lastnames for many other fields. For more info, see List Management.

Sorting on more than one field You can sort on more than one field (e.g. first on release year, and within each year on title) · Sorting on a single field can be done by clicking on the column header of a field in the tabular list view in the main screen. See the section on Finding a movie. However, one single sorting field may not be sufficient for somewhat larger collections. Suppose you wish to sort on release year, but have so many movies for each release year, that you would prefer to list them alphabetically within each year. For this, you can use the menu View | Sort Order | Choose Sort fields. A screen will come up where you can define the fields you wish to sort on.

For more information also check with the Sort field selection screen.

Sorting on index. The index value and how to use it when sorting · The index you see in the main screen list is a number that is assigned to each movie automatically. You can override this by using the menu Tools | Options, where you will find a settings called 'Auto increment index'. If turned off,movies no longer will get a new number assigned when you enter them into your collection.

· The index can be re assigned (so every movie gets a new value). For this, see the Sort Field Selection screen.

· If you have deleted a movie from your collection, you can also manually change the index of any movie to fill the gap. Just use the menu Edit | Edit Movie and enter the index directly. An index value no longer in use (of a deleted movie) will not be used again automatically.

Sorting on when the movie was entered into your collection. Two ways to sort your collection based on when the movie was entered into your collection

· First, it is possible to use the date you enter a movie into your collection automatically to be either the viewing date or the purchase date. For this, use the menu Tools | Field Defaults. Using either one will allow you to later make sorting on the date of entry convenient.

· You can also use the database field ID. This field is a simple number, which is always higher for a movie that was entered after an other. So choosing View | Sort Order | Choose Sort Fields, and assigning ID as field will sort the database chronologically (on time of entry).

Related Topics Browsing your database List management Lookup Lists

8.5.4 Folder view for grouping The Folder View is fun and powerful way to view your movie collection, grouping it dynamically on one or more fields. The menu View | Folders provides a listing of predefined folder views. If you choose Genre for example, Movie Collector will display a set of folders based on the List of genres that are known in your collection. · Each genre folder will include movies within that genre. · If a movie has multiple genres, it will be listed in all of them. · If a movie does not have a genre, it ends up in the [None] folder that will then appear in the tree of folders.

To switch folders on or off, use the Show Folders toolbar icon .

· In the predefined folder list, you may notice that its possible to have nested folder views. For example Genre / Release year will list genre folders and within each folder the movies will be grouped on release year. · There is a Choose folder fields folder option (Pro version only), where you can select a folder view based on one or more data fields, using preset. Folder view only works with Lookup List items. · There is the option to have the folders display number of movies contained within. E.g. 'Action (12)' means there a twelve movies that have as genre 'Action'. You can set this numerical indicator through the Options screen, and it is called 'show counter in tree folders' · A quick way to change the folder view is by clicking on the folder view tree top. A drop-down list will appear to select a different view:

Drag and drop to assign new lookup list values The folder view can be useful for reclassifying movies. This can be done by drag&drop of movies between folders. By default, dragging a movie to another folder replaces the existing values for the field on which the movies are grouped at that time (so for the field chosen as folder view field). If a lookup field can have multiple values, like the Genre field, hold down the Ctrl key when starting to drag to add the new genre to the selected movie.

Notes on using drag and drop between folders: · When dragging to the [None] folder, all values will be cleared if you do not hold Ctrl. If you do hold Ctrl, only the current value will be removed and any other values will be kept. · This only applies to fields that can have multiple values, like genre. For other fields, the current value is always replaced by a drag and drop action.

Folder values that are not used yet by any movie By default, the Folder View only shows folders for lookup items that are in use, i.e. only non-empty folders are shown. The Show Empty Folders option (in the View Menu) makes empty folders appear too. This is useful when you want to drag and drop a movie to another folder while the destination folder is still empty. For example, you are rearranging your movies over the genres and have added a few new genres for this. In the default view, you cannot drag movies to the new genres because they are empty and thus hidden. By enabling "Show Empty Folders" you can make them appear and drag your movies in them to set this new genre for the movies

Related Topics Main screen Browsing your database List management Lookup Lists

8.5.5 Barcode scanning reference

EAN barcode 5050582412109 UPC Barcode 025192626029

Most DVD cases have a barcode on the back. This encodes a 12- or 13-digit number that uniquely identifies the DVD. You can use barcodes for two purposes: · Searching the database with a unique number. · Locating a movie in your collection.

Locating a movie To locate a movie in your collection, select the Quick Search box on the toolbar, and scan the barcode.

Supported scanners · Collectorz.com laser scanner: the · CueCat: Both modified and unmodified CueCats Collectorz.com barcode scanner is supported are supported. You do not need any drivers, Movie directly; the driver is installed when you install Collector can decode the data itself. It can be Movie Collector. Using the scanner on a USB plugged in to the USB port, and is ready for use. port requires you to additionally install drivers The section below to initialize is for the for the cable. See the Collectorz.com website Collectorz.com barcode scanner only. for more information. This scanner is sometimes referred to as the Flic scanner.

· Other scanners: any barcode scanner that can function as a 'keyboard wedge' can be used. You usually need to install driver software for this, which should be delivered with the scanner.

Collectorz.com Scanner Setup and use

Setting up the scanner 1. Insert three fresh AAA batteries in the scanner 2. Press the scanner's button and verify that it emits a red laser beam. No beam? Check the Trouble Shooting Guide. 3. Now scan a barcode and verify that the scanner beeps and the green light blinks. 4. No beep or blink? Check the Trouble Shooting Guide.

Connecting the scanner to your computer Serial port connection

1. Use the included cable to connect the scanner to a free serial port on your computer. Your computer does not have a serial port? Please read the section below about using a USB connection.

USB connection If you do not have a serial port on your computer, you can connect your Collectorz.com scanner to a free USB port using a Serial-to-USB adapter cable:

1. Please visit our Buw Now to buy a Serial-to-USB adapter cable. 2. Install the driver software that you can download from the Movie Collector download page (at the bottom). 3. Connect the scanner to a free USB port on your computer, using the cable that was included with the scanner and your new Serial-to-USB adapter cable.

Using the Collectorz.com barcode scanner in Movie Collector 1. Select Initialize Flic Scanner from the Tools menu. 2. After a few seconds, Movie Collector should report "Your Flic scanner has been activated successfully. Would you like to activate it automatically next time you start the program?". Choose Yes here. 3. Do you get the message "Your Flic scanner could not be detected." instead? Check the Trouble Shooting Guide. 4. Scan a barcode. Movie Collector should now read the barcode and will search your database for the barcode. 5. If it is found, that item will be selected. If it is not found, the 'Add Movies Automaically' function will start with the scanned barcode already entered. 6. Scanned barcodes do not appear in Movie Collector? Check the Trouble Shooting Guide.

Using the scanner in other software If you want to use your Collectorz.com scanner in other software, you can do so by installing the Scanner Wedge software. Scanner Wedge will make your scanner emulate keyboard input, which will allow your scanner to be used in any program or text box that accepts keyboard input. Note: currently Scanner Wedge is available for Windows only.

Here's how to install and configure Scanner Wedge: 1. Download the Scanner Wedge installer here: scannerwedge.zip 2. Unzip the download file 3. Run setup.exe to install.

To use the Collectorz.com scanner in any program, run Scanner Wedge from the Start menu

(Programs / Scanner Wedge / Scanner Wedge). The scanner will function as a keyboard emulator while Scanner Wedge is running. Please see the User Guide for more detailed usage instructions.

The Cuecat scanner functions as a keyboard wedge on itself, but the data it passes on it not merely a barcode. It is an coded version of the barcode, and can therefore not be used on its own in other Windows applications.

Scanner hints - Collectorz.com- and Cuecat barcode scanner

How to scan - Hints The Collectorz.com laser barcode scanner will have arrived with a leaflet explaining what the best way to scan is. Basically, the best way is at a slight angle (not at 90 degrees towards the barcode), at a distance of around 4 inches (approx 10 cm).

For the Cuecat scanner, there is no such leaflet. Therefore some basic tips for scanning using the Cuecat scanner.

· Hold the CueCat reader between your thumb and forefinger like a pen or pencil. Place the nose of the CueCat on the left side of the code, but not within the code itself. · Align the cat's "paws" with the bottom of the code. Tip the CueCat forward so that the nose is also in contact with the surface of the item. · Move the CueCat reader smoothly from left to right across the code in one fluent motion. Remember to keep the reader in contact with the code throughout the swipe for an accurate reading.

If the barcode does not show up in Movie Collector, swipe in a back and forth motion for another try, moving the Cat a little more up the barcode, away from the bottom.

Note: The USB CueCat reader includes a standby or "sleep" feature. After a period of inactivity, the light on your CueCat reader goes out and then flashes periodically. When you point the CueCat reader at an object, it lights up again and is ready to use. If not, just hold your finger over the light until it comes on solid. The light must be on solid before you scan.

8.5.6 Storing disks Movie Collector is great for collecting information about your movie collection. It is also good for tracking the physical media like DVDs and VHS tapes. Here are some tips on how you can organize this:

Index Values · One way to organize your physical movies is by the Index value. This is useful because to find a movie, first locate it in Movie Collector and read off its index value. Next go to the index position in your collection. When a movie is added to the database an Index value is automatically assigned. The Index number automatically increases, as you add movies to your collection. When you buy new movies, add them to your Movie Collector database. No need to resort your entire collection, Movie Collector will track where everything is. The next Index value, as well as whether it should

be incremented automatically, can be controlled through the Options screen.

· Sometimes you may want to change the index values. For example when movies are deleted, a gap will be created in the index sequence. In such a case, you can select Tools | Maintenance | Re-Assign Index fields... to renumber your movies so that the indexes match again. When you select this menu option, a field selection screen will be shown where you can indicate which sort order must be used to assign the index values. For example, when you select the Title field, the movies with a title starting with "A" will get a lower index than titles starting with "B".

Useful fields: Owner, Location, Tape Label and Start Position · If your movie collection is a merging from more then one person, ownership can be tracked through the Owner field. You can then group on the Owner field to see who owns what. If there are multiple places where the movies are kept, you can track this through the Location field. · If your collection contains VHS tapes or other home video tape formats, then the Tape Label and Start Position fields can be useful. See Data field meanings for more information about the mentioned fields. · Movie Collector also integrates with a DVD Carousel, which is great for storing the actual discs in.

Related Topics Editing Movies Options screen DVD Carousels

8.5.7 Shortcut keys Some actions have been assigned to a (combination of) keyboard keys.

Main screen Ctrl+F Quick Search Ctrl+Alt+F Toggle filter on/off Ins Add Movie Automatically Shift+Ins Add Movie Manually Ctrl+Enter Edit Movie Shift+Enter Edit Multiple movies Ctrl+ "+" Auto adjust column widths to minimum required size Ctrl+Ins Duplicate Movie Ctrl+U Update Movie Automatically Ctrl+A Select all movies in list Ctrl+R Select random movie F5 Refresh folder view F1 Open Helpfile

Edit Movie screen F2 · Change Cast or Crew (when the Cast or Crew field is selected) · Add/Edit lookup item (when lookup field is selected) F4 Enter current date (when a date field is selected) F8 Clear field (only when editing multiple movies)

Media Center viewer keyboard shortcuts

Although the Media Center viewer is optimized for use through a Media Center remote control, a regular keyboard can also be used to browse trough the MCE viewer General keys (XP and Vista) backspace To go back in your viewer history, similar to the back button in your web browser (corresponds to the back button on a remote) arrow-keys Move the cursor across the on-screen keyboard, as well as browse movies when looking at the movie list / images. (left-right; corresponds to the 4 way arrow keys on a remote) tab Used on the movie detail screen will jump from one pane to the other. Useful if a plot is too large to fit on screen (tab and arrow down will scroll the remainder of the plot; corresponds to the arrow right on a remote) enter · Will let you view the movie's details when browsing the movie list; the backspace will bring you back to the list. (corresponds to the OK button on a remote) · When the details of the movie are shown, the key will start playing the linked movie file (if a movie file is linked to the movie using the links tab of the edit screen. Additional Windows Vista keys : p Will play a movie from your harddrive if a movie file is linked to that movie (using the links tab of the edit screen; corresponds to the play button on a remote) k Will invoke the onscreen keyboard (corresponds to the arrow down on a remote)

8.5.8 Digital movie files Movie Collector supports a number of file formats for digital movies. These can be entered on the Links tab of the Edit Movie screen, and can be started from the Details View as well as in Media Center. The following file formats are recognized as movies: Type File extension AVI avi DivX divx QuickTime mov, qt MPEG mpg, mpeg, mp2, mp3, mp4 Windows Media wma, wmv Real rm, ra, ram DVD ifo, vob

Linking to a DVD You can play a DVD either directly from the DVD drive, or from your hard disk when you have ripped the disc. A DVD contains both .IFO and .VOB files. It is recommended to create a link to the IFO file since it is necessary to have a corresponding IFO file to be able to play the VOB files.

If you link to a VOB file, Movie Collector will look for an IFO file in the same folder. If it finds one the movie will link to the IFO file instead of the VOB file. If it can not find the corresponding IFO file the link will remain unchanged and a message will show saying your movie will probably not play. It is possible to just link to the VIDEO_TS folder as well. In that case Movie Collector will look for the VIDEO_TS.IFO file.

Note If you have more than one movie file link and the first one listed is an IFO file, you can only play that movie from Media Center. If it is not the first link, the other movie links can all be played except the one linking to the IFO file.